Cabinet Committees Dail Éireann — 2026-06-09 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central I thank all the Deputies for raising these very important questions here. On Deputy Martin Daly’s question, I have also met the group, Before We Die, in relation to vulnerable adult children and the fear and anxiety of parents in terms of providing for them if they were to pass from this world. The Minister for housing has met the Minister of State for disability. The Minister for housing is instructing local authorities to build and to have a quota in every scheme for people with disabilities in the first instance and not do so on the basis that if they get wraparound services, they will build a house. They must just go and build it. We will have to put pressure on the HSE side, on the healthcare side, to make sure there are supports. The local authority will have to work proactively with the families and the health service to make sure the appropriate balance of care is provided. A lot of people with disabilities are in the position to manage so a continuum of care is required here. The last meeting of the disability group discussed this in some considerable detail. Having met the Before We Die group, it was clear the parents were being asked to jump hurdles that were really not appropriate, in my view. We should be more proactive as a State in helping them along this journey to try to provide for their children - particularly on the accommodation side. I met one parent who said her two sons could manage quite well with a bit of support and did not need anything too extraordinary. Others would need far more intensive care in a residential environment. We also have to get the balance right between decongregation and new provision because if all the resources just go into decongregation, there are no resources for new provision. We have to try to work with all concerned in trying to find a way through this. I am just being honest and open here. The current situation is not sustainable - I am very clear about that. Both Departments are now working together to try to unblock that for the families concerned. On Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan’s question, I will have to check. My understanding was that progress was being made in terms of the lead positions. On the national disability lead, I will talk to the Minister in respect of that. I will come back to the Deputy on that. Deputy McGreehan raised disability access officers. That is a potentially powerful catalyst in every local authority area with the right people recruited who could look at the full range of policies across a local authority from housing to pedestrian access to roads to access to buildings to ensure the entire philosophy of local authorities is imbued with implementing the human-rights based strategy for disabled people. I will revert to the Deputy on where we are on that and the coverage across the country. It is something the Government is interested in expanding. On Deputy Quaide's contribution, I met Craig Coady yesterday with Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan. It was a very heartrending meeting. What the family has gone through is quite shocking. I have spoken to the Minister about this. We will do everything we can to accelerate consideration of Skyclarys provision. It was never scheduled for tomorrow but I think Givinostat is. However, we are hoping we can bring forward consideration of Skyclarys by the HSE's drugs group. We have about 200 families who are living with Friedreich's ataxia. I am very conscious of this as is the Minister. For the record of the House, I laid out earlier the information I was provided with in terms of the engagement between the HSE and the company. What is more important now is that we try to get this over the line as quickly as we possibly can in accordance with the procedures and processes that are laid out. Time is running out for many people, not least young Paudie himself who needs this as fast as we possibly can provide it. The Minister is taking other actions as well to make sure that if a positive decision was to emerge in the next number of weeks, we could make sure a green light could be given. Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the Northside Home Care issue. Obviously, the industrial relations can be quite complex in terms section 39 organisations and WRC agreements. Every decision taken in relation to any one group does not stay with the one group. It has read across to other scenarios as well. I do not know whether that is the core issue here in terms of the nature of Northside Home Care and whether structure of it is the problem in terms of the application of the section 39 resolution of this through the WRC, which took a considerable length of time following the public service pay agreement. Deputy Heneghan also raised this. I will endeavour to engage with the Department of public expenditure on this and with all concerned to see if we can find a way to deal with this. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-09