Will the Minister consider disregarding the working family payment as a means for the social housing list?

I am raising this issue because a single parent, a woman with three children, came into my office. She is facing eviction. She works two days a week and receives the lone parent payment and working family payment and is now over the threshold for social housing in her area. When discussing this case with the housing officer in the local authority, she commented that the working family payment puts a lot of people over the threshold. It is a weekly, tax-free payment for employees with children. It supports people on…

A number of years ago, this would not have mattered so much because if someone did not qualify for social housing, private rentals were available and affordable. They are neither available or affordable at the moment for people just over the threshold for social housing. In fact, they are not affordable for people on a medium or even a high income at this stage. I know of many individuals and families who have turned down work, stayed working part time instead of full time, refused overtime and are not claiming pay…

The Government seems to have thrown in the towel on the commitment it gave in the programme for Government to implement a statutory home support scheme over its term in government. It appears very unlikely at this stage. The failure to do that is pushing older and disabled people into hospitals and nursing homes, or into early admission to long-term residential care, when they should be cared for in their own homes. This was highlighted by the ombudsman in the report, Wasted Lives, which stated that the implementat…

I ask the Minister to detail the effect the HSE recruitment freeze will have on delivering disability services and to make a statement on the matter.

I thank the Minister of State for that reply because it is very welcome. Only today I was talking to someone from a section 38 organisation that provides residential, respite and day services. They have already met their board to curtail their services in the coming weeks. The services will still be curtailed because the organisation was in the middle of a recruitment process a number of weeks ago with 60 staff positions to fill. They were not healthcare positions, but care assistant positions, which were initially…

It is a month. People are not going to hang around for a job they do not know is going to materialise, or did not know would until today. It was paused on 13 October, so services are going to be affected. Fortunately, this will be and can be addressed, but can agency staff be taken on in the meantime?

I thank the Minister of State. The organisations will do so, but what they were saying was they had people in the process of being recruited and they do not think those people are still going to be there. They hope they will, and if they are then the organisations will take them on, but they said people will leave, because they have to. Given the demands of paying for the cost of living and so on, people are going to move on to something else unless they are sure the job is going to come up. Health and social care …

I ask the Minister of State to set out the actions being taken to establish a register of national disabled persons representative organisations, DPROs, to ensure all consultations on matters regarding disability are carried out in accordance with general comment 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD; and to make a statement on the matter.

General Comment No. 7 of the UNCRPD is clear. DPROs must be consulted by public bodies, local authorities, etc., on issues relating to disability. Many of them consult with disability organisations, but these are not necessarily DPROs. We need a register of DPOs, with a criterion indicating what a DPO is and an outline of the different categories of disability, namely, whether it is physical or intellectual or whether it relates to someone who is visually impaired or deaf or hard of hearing. Nothing about us withou…

Urgent action is needed from Government on disability services to ensure the rights of children and adults are upheld in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is the key message that comes from this report. The report is called Aligning Disability Services with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is the conclusion of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters after hearing from individuals with a lived experience of disability, those car…

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Gino Kenny - To discuss the medical cannabis access programme. Deputy Michael Moynihan - To discuss the need to protect and preserve the Kanturk courthouse complex in County Cork. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor - To discuss the expansion of dental care for patients and increased fees for dental contractors. Deputy Steven Matthews - To discuss measure…

Is Deputy Pringle sharing time with Deputy McNamara?

Will the Minister consider allowing persons in receipt of disability allowance or the blind pension to remain part of the free travel scheme if they return to employment and will make a statement on the matter? Carer's allowance and invalidity pension were mistakenly included in my original written question because of an oversight.

I tabled this question because we have a poor rate of employment for disabled people. Of those of working age, disabled people are only half as likely to be employed as those without a disability. The average employment rate among disabled people in Europe is 51%, but in Ireland it is only 32.6%. With Greece, we are the joint worst, but that country has a very low rate of employment anyway, while we have a healthy rate. This actually makes our rate worse because the employment gap is greater. Many disabled people w…

The whole focus here is to get away from the situation where disabled people sometimes look at returning to employment but realise they would be better off staying on the disability payment because of the additional benefits they get. I ask that as many changes as possible be made in this regard to encourage as many people as possible to get back into the workforce. The Minister mentioned those who are medically unfit to drive and the free travel pass being extended to them. Could she elaborate on this point? I am …

Applicants for adaptation grants for homes of people with a disability or a disability acquired as a result of an accident or progressive condition are waiting five or six months for Cavan County Council to even acknowledge the application. They are not even assessed at that stage for priority. There is then limited availability of funding, so only a small number of grants are dealt with. People are being forced to remain in hospital, go into a nursing home, sleep on the sofa or put their bed and often a commode in…

I thank the Rural Independent Group for tabling this important motion. It is a huge issue in Cavan, as it is elsewhere. I am contacted weekly by people who inquire about driving tests and wonder whether their applications could be fast-tracked. Many of them are young and about to take up an apprenticeship or new job or college place and require a driving licence to get to their places of employment or study. As there is a lack of accommodation, many cannot live near their place of study and public transport in Cava…

I pay tribute to the O'Farrell family and commend their dignity in their quest for truth and justice for Shane. Shane O'Farrell's family deserve the truth. They deserve to know why and how the man who killed him, Zigimantas Gridziuska, was out on bail at the time he killed Shane in a hit-and-run incident on 2 August 2011. At the time, Mr. Gridziuska had 34 previous convictions across three jurisdictions. He had been on continuous bail since August 2008 even though there were multiple breaches of the bail conditions…

I could talk for hours about it, but anyway. I move: 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 R…