The Government acknowledges the essential role voluntary organisations have in delivering a range of disability services. The Department has provided substantial additional funding to HSE specialist disability services since the transfer of functions in 2023. In this year's budget, €3.9 billion is provided for. In budget 2025, it amounted to €3.2 billion, so there was quite a substantial increase of almost 20% in that one year alone. These substantial additional investments demonstrate the Government’s commitment t…

I respond by meeting them and listening to them. I have met with the Before We Die campaign twice now and the Minister, Deputy Foley, has too. The first time was at their request and I was absolutely happy to do that. The second time was at my request because I wanted to meet them, together with the HSE, to ensure that we had the right people around the table to be able to make progress. I would also like to take this opportunity to mention a group who are not part of that campaign but who are facing similar situat…

On the Deputy's last point, the WRC pay agreement reached in 2025 between Government Departments and unions includes funding for a phased 9.25% pay increase that will benefit workers in section 39 voluntary organisations. The agreement also includes an automatic linkage to future public sector pay agreements for those workers to match all future pay increases. In delivering on the 9.25% pay increase, the Government is improving the ability of service providers to actively recruit and retain staff and supporting the…

I thank Deputy Heneghan. This question relates to the continuity of care and day services. The HSE advises that disability services integrated service area, Dublin North County, and integrated service area, Dublin North City and West, in the Dublin north-east region provides a range of supports for adults with disabilities, their families and carers, including home support, personal assistance services, respite services, day services and registered residential services, subject to assessed need and service availabi…

I would too. I have met members of the Before We Die campaign twice, as has the Minister, Deputy Foley, and, I believe, many other members of the Government. I first met them at their request and the second time was at my request because I wanted to have a follow-up meeting with senior officials from the HSE to sit down together and work out a plan of action. I also acknowledge parents whose adult children attend the day services at Remember Us in Balbriggan, who I met on this issue as well. I met a young advocate …

I agree with the Deputy that we need timelines and we do have some timelines in place. This year's budget will fund the planned places that will happen this year. In terms of capacity building, we have targets and deadlines outlined in our disability capital plan, in which there was also an uplift this year. This year, we are hiring for six new additional roles within the HSE. Those postholders will liaise with, for example, local authorities, approved housing bodies and developers and work with them to ensure we a…

I thank the Senators for the invitation to speak here today. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to outline my key priorities as Minister of State for disability. It is important, first and foremost, to recognise that supporting people with disabilities is a shared responsibility. It is one that extends across all of society and, most importantly, to every level of government, because disability is not abstract; it is lived every day. For many people, engaging with disability services is not a temporary thing…

I thank the Cathaoirleach; I appreciate that. Other important supports funded by my Department include home support and personal assistance services. Approximately 7,000 people with disabilities in Ireland currently receive home support, including both adults and children with a wide range of needs, while almost 3,000 disabled adults receive personal assistance services. These services play a key role in supporting independence and enabling people to live in their own communities. That is why this year's budget pro…

I thought the Cathaoirleach was going to give out to me.

Turning now to legislation, the Department is currently undertaking a review of the Disability Act. This will examine and update the statutory framework that underpins co-ordinated action across Government and disability issues with the aim of strengthening delivery mechanisms and supporting a more effective whole-of-government approach. As part of this work, the review will also progress the programme for Government commitment to place an autism strategy on a statutory footing. In addition, I have committed to com…

I can make my contribution shorter if that is within the rules. I would like everybody to be able to contribute. It is a question of what the Chair and Members feel. It is their House, not mine. I would like to accommodate everyone.

I told the Acting Chair that I am happy to stay until everybody has spoken.

I thank the Acting Chair and all the staff in the Seanad for facilitating us in running late. It is really important that everybody who wants to contribute to this debate has the opportunity to do so and it is really important that I have the opportunity to listen to those views. I thank everybody who contributed. I have copious notes so I ask Senators to bear with me while I try to respond as best I can to the issues raised. Employment was first raised by Senator Byrne and was also touched on by Senator Martin Con…

The Living My Life programme that Senator Rabbitte spoke about was also spoken about at that meeting with the HSE and the Before We Die campaign. I met Remember Us with Deputy Grace Boland. It was discussing that same issue. Earlier today, I met with a young advocate to also discuss that issue. The Living My Life programme is relevant. The Senator is absolutely right. That is why it was spoken about at that meeting with Before We Die. The new housing officer positions within the HSE are really important. They relat…

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I am taking time at the end because I gave up my time earlier to make sure that we got every Member in.

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I appreciate that. Many of those new roles are already filled at this stage. They are going to be helpful to make sure that we are moving from a situation of dealing with crisis cases. Up until now, the funding has only been in place to be able to provide for crisis cases. What we want to do is be able to deliver on a planned basis. For the first time now this year, we have funding in the budget for planned residential places. It is not enough and is a small amount compared with where we …

-----to get those changes into county development plans. That would be really helpful. I acknowledge the good work that is happening there. That kind of forward planning will help the situation that Senator Nelson Murray spoke about where we are talking about retrospectively upgrading homes from an accessibility perspective and housing adaptation grants. That will get us into a situation where we are more futureproofing homes. That is really positive. I thank Senator Nelson Murray for her feedback in relation to th…

Speech and language therapy. The HSE now has an initiative called Glór, which is specifically for delivering speech and language therapy to children with Down's syndrome. It is a whole lifespan approach. For the first time ever, a number of organisations came together, including Down Syndrome Centre, Down Syndrome Ireland, Hub 21 and someone else who I am forgetting. There were four organisations that all came together with a funding proposal for the HSE because it is very clear that we needed to intervene to suppo…

As I stand here, I am really conscious of the pressures people are under. At petrol stations, people are paying more and more for their fill. At supermarket tills, people are paying more and more for groceries. The cost of living is rising and the cost of doing business is rising. That is why the Government has acted with the largest support package in the EU. For those with disabilities and their families, there is an extra layer of cost, namely, the cost of disability. That is why the Minister, Deputy Dara Callea…

The last time I was here I gave some of my time to Members, so I look forward to collaborating. I am pleased to have the opportunity to present the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026 to Seanad Éireann following its passage through the Dáil. This Bill is urgent legislation intended to ensure legal certainty for wards of court who are moving to a decision-making process as set out in the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. In that regard I very much appreciate the co-operation of the …