Is the Minister considering the consolidation of all disability payments into one single payment system and, if so, has she plans to consult and co-design the scheme in conjunction with the disability community, and will she make a statement on the matter?

As the Minister has said, one of the proposals was to merge the disability allowance, blind pension and invalidity pension into a single payment called the personal support payment. While the Green Paper has been scrapped, and for good reason, there were proposals within which merited further analysis and I believe this is one. In our consultation with disabled individuals and DPOs, there was a cautious welcome from many for this proposal. The current system does not meet the needs of disabled people. It is cumbers…

The Green Paper also proposed higher rates for disability payments, and that, too, needs to be progressed. The cost of disability payment needs to be looked at. The priority is to ensure no person is living in poverty. I also refer to a number of constituents who have come to my office because their payment has been cut or curtailed without any warning. There may be perfectly good reasons for this, like a review or other incidents that have to be looked into, but the biggest problem is these people have been left w…

In the early hours of Tuesday, 17 October 2023, unions reached an agreement on pay parity for section 39, section 56 and section 10 workers who are employed in community services. The agreement came about on foot of a long-running dispute relating to the pay they were receiving and the pay their counterparts directly employed by the State were receiving. A proposal was agreed acknowledging that the workers in those sections deserve pay equality. That was a very significant step for those organisations. A pathway wa…

I appreciate that and I am delighted to hear there will be further talks and negotiations. If this issue is not dealt with, we will not see an end to this problem. There is a shortage of workers within the sector, so they will go to the agencies and organisations that can pay them more. They will do exactly the same work but be paid better. Several organisations have expressed concern. The IWA expressed concern directly after the unions accepted the deal. While it welcomed the pay increase for workers within its se…

I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward the motion and affording us the opportunity to address the House on the need to review and reform support for carers. Family carers have long been held up as a crucial pillar of parent support in Ireland. Various departmental strategies and documents refer to the important role that family carers play in our society, viewing them as the backbone of care provision in Ireland. The often unquantifiable costs experienced by parents caring for a child with a profound intel…

My colleague Deputy Carthy and I have consistently raised the issue of the very limited provision of respite in our constituency of Cavan-Monaghan. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has committed to looking at an additional house for children in Monaghan and I hope she will proceed with that very soon. It has been brought to my attention by a parent that Steadfast House in Carrickmacross in County Monaghan, which provides respite on three weeks out of four, cannot provide it on the fourth week due to lack of …

Ongoing bad weather has created huge problems for farmers this spring, with fields too wet for planting or taking livestock. Many farmers face fodder shortages because animals have been in sheds for too long. They cannot access grass in the fields because of wet ground conditions. Tillage farmers cannot get onto their land to plant their crops. My neighbours' fields are still empty. They cannot put the cattle out, and cattle would always have been out by April. According to Met Éireann, 2023 was the third wettest y…

The Deputy’s time is up.

That concludes statements of acknowledgement and apology to the families and victims of the Stardust tragedy. I thank you for being here today and commend your fortitude, determination and resilience over the past 43 years in doing something you should not have had to do and for seeing it through. I am just in awe. Thank you very much.

I, too, welcome the decision to scrap the Green Paper on Disability Reform. My colleagues in Sinn Féin and I had grave reservations about it and had called for it to be binned. As Sinn Féin spokesperson on disability, along with its spokesperson on social protection, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, I met a wide range of disabled people and representatives of disability organisations to discuss the Green Paper. We did this because it was extremely important to hear directly the views of members of the disability community. I am…

I raise the current situation in regard to the Irish Wheelchair Association service in Cavan. As of this week, the service has been reduced to an outreach-only model, similar to what was offered during the Covid period. This decision, which is based on the lack of staff, was made in conjunction with the HSE. Service users are devastated. The service was already severely reduced but now it is down to zero. The existing staff are fantastic but it is impossible to recruit and retain people, mainly due to the pay parit…

There have been 63 deaths on our roads this year, meaning 63 grieving families. At the current rate of traffic fatalities, Ireland is on course to record 225 deaths by the end of the year, which would make it the worst year for road safety in over a quarter of a century. We hope that does not happen because we do not want to see any more grieving families. We also need to remember all the people who have suffered serious injuries, including life-changing injuries. The four main reasons for road fatalities remain. T…

I pay tribute to the cancer support groups in my constituency, including Ballyjamesduff Cancer Support Fund, CUAN cancer support in Cavan, and Crocus cancer support in Monaghan, and also the Moylagh JFK 50 Mile Challenge committee, which has raised over €1.2 million for cancer services and research over the past 11 years. These groups provide vital services and support for cancer patients and their families, with little or no central government funding. I commend my party colleague Deputy Cullinane for introducing …

What measures is the Minister taking with the deposit return scheme, which is inaccessible in its current format for disabled people?

The machines are too high for wheelchair users. They cannot reach the place where you actually input the bottles or cans. There is no Braille or raised marking on the cans or bottles for people who are blind or visually impaired. People who order their shopping online have no mechanism to return their bottles or cans. That is something that could be easily resolved working with the supermarkets or shops involved but, as yet, there is nothing. The machines and the actual logo are much more important. Wheelchair user…

I move: That Dáil Éireann shall take note of the Report of the Joint Committee on Autism entitled "Final Report of the Joint Committee on Autism", copies of which were laid before Dáil Éireann on 14th June, 2023. I will share my time with Senator Micheál Carrigy. I express my thanks to my fellow members of the former Joint Committee on Autism who worked diligently to produce this report. The collaborative and considered approach we took to our engagement is reflected in this report. In particular, I thank Senator M…

I thank all my colleagues for their contributions to this discussion. It is not really a debate; it is a discussion. I thank the Minister of State not just for being here and participating in this but for all the work she does in this area. I am really looking forward to the launch of the autism innovation strategy. It is great to hear it is just a few weeks away. She said it was initiated before the committee's final report but the two dovetail, and that makes sense. The onus is on whoever is in Government in the …

The Seanad is the Upper House.

I welcome the preparation of a rare disease plan, but this should have been commenced long before now. The current plan is six years out of date, because the time period for its implementation was between 2014 and 2018. More than one third of people with rare diseases in Ireland have had to wait more than five years for a diagnosis. Currently, in Ireland, only nine conditions are included in the newborn bloodspot screening programme, while many other countries screen up to 20 conditions. I am aware that approval fo…