Services for disabled people are either threadbare or non-existent. These are services in areas like education, healthcare, social care and transport that are not optional extras. They are services that disabled people are entitled to as a right. If, eventually, they are provided, it is only ever after a fight. Funding shortfalls, staffing shortfalls and lack of resources are the only guarantees. As highlighted. last night, "Prime Time" covered a crisis in a special school in Clondalkin, Scoil Mochua. Its patron, t…

The Minister is very confused about it.

The Minister says he is keenly aware of that boy and that girl. When looking at the budget figures, it does not feel like it. He does not have to take my word for it. The ESRI said it thinks the budget will push more disabled people into poverty. Instead, the Government decided to try to splash the cash around indiscriminately in a brazen attempt to try to buy votes rather than invest in these critical services, such as disability services. That was a political choice that was made. On budget day, we saw what we ha…

Can the Minister answer my question about the budget?

Five women in Northern Ireland have been killed in the space of just seven weeks: Sophie Watson, Montserrat Martorell, Rachel Simpson, Mary Ward and Mandy Magill. Per capita , Northern Ireland is now one of the most dangerous places in Europe to be a woman. Violence against women is an epidemic and always has been. Our society, culture and institutions are steeped in violence against women and changing that is not easy. It is present on our streets, our workplaces and our homes. We have had a lot of debates in this…

It is not agreed.

Child protection is a really important issue for every organisation in the country, including political parties. As politicians, we routinely hold others to account. It is unfortunate that the leader of Sinn Féin has now left. I appreciate that she came here today to bring more transparency to what is happening in her party but I have to highlight her glossing over of the glowing statement she made about the former Senator, Niall Ó Donnghaile, when he resigned. Whatever about not publicly naming him as the centre o…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. I want to touch on the budget because every year on budget day we go through the same farce again and again. The Government announces a high-level figure for investment in disability services. This year it claimed the figure was €336 million, only for us to find out days later that this money will largely pay for services already being provided and the actual amount allocated to expanding our threadbare supports is far lower. In reality, only €42 million for the ex…

----- might finally be ratified-----

-----with days left? Over the years, we have heard from different experts, including the UN special rapporteur, who have clearly said the optional protocol could be ratified in the morning. Disabled people should not have had to wait this long. They should not have to wait any longer for the ability to vindicate their rights and hold the State accountable for its failures. The Government still has not given us the exact date or an explanation as to why it has been left this late, basically for the next Government t…

Recently the Minister’s party leader claimed the Social Democrats believe Ireland is a failed state. It seems as if he was literally making stuff up and saying it on national radio. I have always acknowledged the country's many positives and successes and I have consistently pointed out the profound sense of disconnect many people have as a result of that. This is a disconnect between a GDP that makes us one of the richest countries in the world and nearly 4,500 children growing up in emergency accommodation; a dis…

The Taoiseach told disabled people that they would feel seen in this budget and in his reply, the Minister said we all share the feeling that it needs to be prioritised. Does the Minister genuinely think that children and their families who are waiting to access CDNTs feel prioritised or seen in this budget? Does he think that the people who hoped that the motorised transport grant for disabled people that was axed over a decade ago might be reintroduced in this budget feel seen? We have the lowest employment rates…

I ask the Minister if he will fund a physical survey of the estate of Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork city to locate the possible burial place of more than 800 children who are unaccounted for and who died in Bessborough or in hospital after being transferred from Bessborough. I ask him to outline plans the Government has for this site and to make a statement on the matter.

We do not know the full extent of the infant deaths in Bessborough. The order's records are unreliable and its statements to the commission were nothing short of abject lies in an attempt to scramble away from justice. At least 928 babies died in Bessborough but only 64 graves have been identified. The Department of local government at the time chalked the scale of infant deaths down to "conditions associated with the unfortunate lot of the unmarried mother". Survivors of Bessborough have never received justice fro…

Sometimes it feels like there is a disconnect in respect of how the Minister speaks about this issue and the lived experience of people. I will give one example. In 1960, 18-year-old Madeleine Walsh was sent to Bessborough. Her baby son, William, fell ill when he was three days old and was taken from her. He died when he was six weeks old. After years of requests for information, she was informed by nuns that he lay in an unmarked grave at Bessborough folly. She visited that spot for years to be near her son and to…

Since Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael went into government with each other, it has not been clear which party's ethos has been more influential. One thing was very clear yesterday, though. We saw the return of Bertienomics. Fianna Fáil's infamous economic policy approach is once again leading the way. What could go wrong? Bertie once famously said that the boom was getting boomier and that is very much the theme of this budget. It is a giveaway on steroids, with a multitude of one-off payments timed to hit people's pocke…

At the weekend, when asked to explain the spiralling homelessness figures, the Taoiseach blamed vulnerable migrants. He said homeless numbers are now heavily impacted by people seeking international protection. This, as the Minister knows, is not true. The biggest correlating factor in the context of rising homelessness in Ireland is not rising migration, it is Fine Gael in government. Every year for more than a decade, homelessness figures have increased. Nearly 14,500 people are now homeless, including almost 4,5…

Since Deputy Harris became Taoiseach, there has been a dominant message from this Government trying to make the lives of international protection applicants as miserable as possible. The Government has announced plans to cut their meagre allowances and to charge them to stay in institutional settings. The Minister's Department is enforcing transfers from international protection applicant accommodation, thereby uprooting adults and children who have integrated into local communities. Meanwhile, efforts to evict peo…

Recently, a constituent reached out to me. Her daughter had an epileptic seizure and she called an ambulance, but had to wait for four hours. That is not an isolated incident. Response times for ambulances are too long, especially in rural areas. Due to staffing shortages, the service depends on workers on non-rostered overtime. This issue is particularly acute in the south west. Incredibly, instead of finding a solution to this, the HSE management decide to slash the ambulance service across the region. For exampl…

They have no funding to address the staff shortages.