Funding for Persons with Disabilities: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]
The following motion was moved by Deputy Pauline Tully:
That Dáil Éireann:
condemns the Government's Budget for 2024 which, like previous Budgets, falls far short of what is required for disability services, meaning that children will continue to wait too long for, and go without, the assessments and therapies they need, while young people with disabilities will remain inappropriately placed in nursing homes, and carers will continue to burnout without respite;
notes that:
— the Disability Capacity Review to 2032: A Review of Disability Social Care Demand and Capacity Requirements up to 2032 was published in July 2021 and it estimated the level of residential services, day services, personal assistance and home supports, respite services, therapies and community services required up to 2032;
— the estimates for personal assistance and the proposed funding allocations were roundly criticised by disabled persons organisations as inadequate to truly support independent living;
— more than two years after its publication, the Government have yet to publish a costed action plan to implement the findings of the capacity review; and
— the Government's mental health policies, Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone and A Vision for Change, indicate a need for 16 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Intellectual Disability Teams comprising 176 staff yet only four teams are in place;
further notes that:
— the Government have yet to agree a sustainable funding model for section 39 organisations, which provide essential core services for people with disabilities on behalf of the Health Service Executive;
— disability service providers are facing severe cost pressures which have not been addressed on a sustainable basis and which were only temporarily addressed by a non-recurring subsidy in 2023; and
— the Government have yet to ratify the Optional Protocol of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, despite commitments by Government parties to do so and previous motions agreed by Dáil Éireann calling on the Government to do so; and
calls on the Government to:
— guarantee that the one-off payments provided to assist disability service providers to cover the ongoing high cost of delivering existing services in 2023 will be repeated for 2024;
— address the recruitment and retention crisis in disability services by making a better offer to trade unions and allocating the funding necessary to achieve pay parity for workers in section 39 organisations;
— revise the budgetary provisions for disability services so that new monies available for improvements amount to at least €155 million next year and separately to ensure that the costs of disability and of running disability services are properly provided for; and
— publish a fully costed disability action plan which meets the needs of people with disabilities, including existing unmet needs and expected future needs, and which places disability services on a sustainable footing.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "That Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes that:
— this Government is committed to expanding services for people with disabilities and developing a more integrated and person-centred policy approach to disability services;
— this commitment is reflected in the budget for disability services which has increased in recent years from €1.7 billion at the close of 2017 to close to €2.8 billion in 2024;
— an additional €195 million will be invested in specialist disability services for 2024, bringing total investment to €2.8 billion;
— funding of €131 million is being allocated to ensure that the full year cost of additional services provided this year is met and funding of €64 million will provide greater investment in a range of new development measures across a range of disability services;
— while once off inflationary funding provided in Budget 2023 was not repeated in Budget 2024, the existing levels of service provision for disability services did take account of increased cost of service provision;
— the Disability Action Plan 2024 – 2026 was approved by Government in July of this year and is currently being prepared for publication and aims to progressively address unmet needs by enhancing and reforming services; and a total of €56 million in additional funding has been allocated to the implementation of Action Plan measures in 2024;
— specifically:
— €20.5 million in extra funding for disability residential services for adults and children to deliver approximately 100 new residential places;
— €10 million in respite services to build on existing provision, to provide more alternative respite such as in homes, after-school and deliver new or enhanced services to families;
— €18.2 million for placements in adult day services for 1,250-1,400 young people leaving school in 2024 and €23.7 million in funding to provide for the full cost of school leavers in 2023; and
— €2 million additional funding in personal assistant services to promote independent living, delivering around 80,000 additional hours, continued investment in home support services, and €1.4 million for specialist community supports for people with neurological impairments;
— the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (PDS) Roadmap will be published later this month and aims to achieve a quality, accessible, equitable and timely service for children with complex needs and their families;
— the PDS Roadmap will include a range of measures to enhance the recruitment and retention of staff to Children's Network Disability Teams (CDNTs);
— the Health Service Executive and its partner agencies are providing services for over 45,740 children at this time, across 91 CDNTs; and 1,300 experienced and deeply committed health and social care professionals and administrative staff across the country are working in partnership with these children and their families;
— in Budget 2024, an additional €8.5 million was provided to improve children's services, including the recruitment of additional therapy positions to bolster CDNTs (175), increasing third level places to develop additional capacity and targeted supports for specialist children's disability services;
— in addition, Capital investment of €23.7 million will provide for the upgrade and development of disability services;
— a dedicated budget in 2024 will also support a range of measures designed to further advance and implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), including the development and implementation of a new ambitious National Disability Strategy and an Autism Innovation Strategy;
— there will be a further call for funding under the Disability Participation and Awareness Fund in 2024 which will support projects across the country that will assist disabled people to participate in local and community life; and this will also include ring-fenced support for disabled persons organisations; and
— funding will be continued for employment supports for persons with disabilities through the Towards Work and Employers for Change Initiatives;
also notes that:
— additional investment in broader disability measures across Government was provided for in Estimates 2024;
— this includes employment-related supports, with a reduction in the minimum weekly hours' threshold for eligibility for the Wage Subsidy Scheme from 21 hours to 15 hours, which will help support people with disabilities into employment;
— an increase in the Carer's Allowance income disregard to €450 for a single person and €900 for a couple;
— people receiving Invalidity Pension, Disability Allowance or Blind Pension will also benefit from a once off payment of €400 in November 2023;
— a Christmas Bonus double payment to all persons getting a long-term disability payment;
— from January 2024 there will be an increase of €12 in maximum personal rate of weekly disability payments; and there will be proportionate increases for people getting a reduced rate;
— a cost of living bonus for people getting a weekly social welfare payment, to be paid in January 2024;
— Domiciliary Care Allowance to increase by €10 a month from January 2024; and
— additional funds are being allocated to the provision of free travel for people medically certified unfit to drive; and
further notes:
— the sustainability and stability of health and social care sectors and the impact of industrial action on essential services is a concern for Government; and section 39 organisations have seen overall disability funding increase from €531 million in 2018 to approximately €707 million in 2023;
— that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Department of Health, following intensive talks under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), have reached a pay agreement with unions representing section 39 and section 56 employees;
— that this agreement has resulted in the postponement of industrial action by staff working in section 39 and section 56 organisations as they consider the pay deal proposed; and
— that the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future contains a commitment to ratify the Optional Protocol after the first reporting cycle under the UNCRPD has concluded; the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is currently working to scope out the requirements for earlier ratification; this scoping work is required due to the long-standing position of the State in relation to honouring international agreements; and it is a priority for Government to ensure that the Optional Protocol is ratified at the earliest possible date.".
-(Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth)
I welcome the service providers to the Gallery this evening and thank them for the great job they do. I thank my colleague, Deputy Tully, for bringing this motion forward. I refer to all the wrongdoing and the wrongs in the budget. This is a really important one and we would not be discussing it this evening if it was not for Deputy Tully. Budget 2024 failed people with disabilities. It failed to recognise the cost of disabilities. There are people watching this evening who cannot afford things and the Minister of State knows this. Some great words were written in the statements by the Minister and the Minister of State and great promised were made which we will hold them to. However, that does not reflect the reality for people at the moment and the Minister of State knows that. If one is a parent of a child with disabilities and told they will have to wait two or three years for the most basic of therapies - be it occupational or speech and language therapy or other necessary therapies - they will have to go and find the money. They will have to beg or borrow that money to be able to do that. Parents of children with disabilities are being pushed into poverty because of this.
What is difficult for people to reconcile is that millions and billions of euro of hard-working taxpayers' money and VAT are allocated to disabilities. Why do people then have to pay for the most basic of services? It is wholly unacceptable. This Government failed to invest adequately in disability services and failed to mainstream disability access across all of the sectors.
I sincerely welcome that the strike action was averted last night but for somebody going to bed last night who is dependent on these services, they did not know what was going to happen during the night. They had to wait until they woke up this morning to be able to say, "I'm going to be able to get out of bed today, I'm going to be able to brush my hair today and I'm going to be able to do the very basic things for myself". That is not right and the Government's hostile negotiating strategy was completely uncalled for and unjustified. It should never ever have come to that. I have spoken with union leaders around this and we have to remember there is still a huge amount of work to be done there. There are hundreds of these workers, working across Mayo to deliver essential services. There is so much more I could say but I have to give time to my colleagues.
I will start by welcoming the people in the Gallery, some of whom are from disability services and some of whom have disabilities themselves. I welcome the families who might be watching this at home or who are logging in tomorrow to watch it. I commend my colleague Deputy Tully who has been a real advocate for people with disabilities since she was appointed to the position of party spokesperson in the Dáil.
Often when families get a diagnosis, it is stark and, unfortunately, it is often a battle a day for some families. We need to end that and to make it easier. I am sure my office is not unique in having families coming to us in distress and in putting us in the bizarre position where we have to contact individual Ministers, contact the HSE and submit parliamentary questions for simple stuff, simple services, and simple supports families should have been getting.
The Minister said providers need to be properly staffed and, obviously, everyone agrees with that but they will not be properly staffed unless people are treated properly. As regards section 39 workers, as my colleague said, many people went to bed last night not expecting to have the services they vitally need in the morning and it is no way to conduct industrial relations. The unions were up for talking months ago and this could have been resolved months and months ago. We did not have to go down to the wire and we definitely did not have to have people going to bed and not knowing what services they would or would not have in the morning.
I welcome confirmation of a pay rise for those operating in the sector, although I appreciate they needed that pay rise and deserve more. A reluctance to invest in disability services and work within disability services has become part of the narrative around this Government. The recent budget was from a Government that failed to tackle the overarching issues of housing and health, but for many the cruellest aspect of the budget was the failure to appreciate the struggles those with disabilities and their families go through on an almost daily basis.
In my home constituency of Limerick, we have incredible disability service providers such as Family Carers Ireland, Dóchas, and Headway. Dóchas, for instance, is an autism support group that does fantastic work with individuals and their families, from family support to social clubs. It is the type of organisation that should be better supported by governments but instead it needs to constantly fundraise for itself.
The meagre €64 million allocation in budget 2024 in funding for additional services just does not match up to what is needed. The rates of poverty for those with a disability are four times the average and, of course, it is because funding is just not devoted to them. What should have been addressed, and was not, is the gap in funding for those who live with a disability. Unfortunately, I have run out of time.
I will start by thanking colleagues from my party and other parties and groups across the Chamber who spoke in support of this motion this evening. I am disappointed the Government has tabled an amendment to this motion because if the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, were totally honest, they know there is not sufficient funding in budget 2024 for disabilities. It is not sufficient to support disabled people; it is not sufficient to support disabled children or children with additional needs and their families; and it is not sufficient to support the organisations that provide vital services for those people. It is not sufficient to meet the level of unmet need, as is outlined in the disability capacity review.
The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and several others mentioned the UNCRPD and a core focus of that is independent living. We still have approximately 2,500 people living with their families, some of them with elderly parents, who constantly worry what will happen when they pass. There are approximately 1,300 young people under the age of 65 living in nursing homes and 2,000-plus who are still living in congregated settings. With respect, 100 residential places will not cut it. We need a focused and planned residential movement because it is very evident that is lacking. Many residential places are provided in response to an emergency and that is not fair on the individual because they are maybe trying to deal with a death or serious illness of their parent or primary carer and it is not their choice. They often end up, as was indicated by a Deputy, miles from family, maybe as a temporary measure in a respite centre, which has a knock-on effect on respite services for other users and we know they are not sufficient at the moment.
Regarding funding to organisations which are, as I stated, delivering vital and essential services on behalf of the State, the funding is insufficient in a number of ways. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, indicated that the inflation funding provided in 2022 and 2023 is in the existing service level of funding. I cannot see that or fathom how organisations will deal with the very high rate of inflation we are experiencing at the moment. The funding barely covers the expenses they have never mind dealing with the extra inflationary costs of that. They are not funded to meet many of the legislative and regulatory changes, such as the extra bank holiday brought in and the raises in the minimum wage. All of these things are essential and are welcome but the organisations must get additional funding to cover those costs for their staff. They have not been provided with that and are expected to somehow magic the money out of nowhere to meet the costs from within their existing budgets.
The same goes for multidisciplinary teams for adults. Again, organisations are funding those services from within their budgets and they cannot sustain that. Many of the organisations have for years been calling for multi-annual funding and again that has not been made available. Organisations cannot plan if they do not get the multi-annual funding. The capital costs are not sufficient in how they are allocated.
Many organisations need capital funding to upgrade their premises.
The disability action plan the Minister of State referred to and Deputy Cairns talked about is 18 months overdue. The Minister of State says the disability roadmap will be published next week. With due respect, the Minister of State said that here in May, and it was not, and it is now late October.
Many of my colleagues raised the issues with CDNTs. Pay parity is one of the issues but it is by no means the main issue. There was a recent joint statement of five representative bodies acting on behalf of occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, social workers and psychologists. They have stated their concerns over safety, governance, risk management, career progression and the erosion of professional autonomy within the CDNTs.
There are a lot of issues I hope this roadmap will deal with. The CDNTs are not working at present. They are completely understaffed. It is nothing to do with the staff in those services. They are excellent staff but they are not getting to do the job they are employed to do. All they are doing is trying to talk to families and deal with irate families. They totally understand why they are irate because while children are not getting the services they require, we are creating a further level of dependency that will only cost the State more in the years to come.
On a matter of clarification, the Minister of State stated section 39 organisations would not be affected by the HSE recruitment freeze.
Section 38 organisations.
Okay. I just wanted clarification on that. I will raise again the issue of hundreds of children impacted by sodium valproate. My colleague Deputy Conway-Walsh engages regularly with people in this sector. They still do not have a full disability pathway in place to deliver the supports and services promised to them. That is the barest minimum owed to these children while we await an independent inquiry.
I thank the Members and the Minister of State for being here but there is not sufficient funding in the budget to meet all of the needs that have been outlined by my colleagues here this evening.
Amendment put.
A division has been called and it is deferred until the weekly division time tomorrow evening.
