I will start by thanking colleagues from my party and other parties and groups across the Chamber who spoke in support of this motion this evening. I am disappointed the Government has tabled an amendment to this motion because if the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, were totally honest, they know there is not sufficient funding in budget 2024 for disabilities. It is not sufficient to support disabled people; it is not sufficient to support disabled children or children with additional needs and…

Okay. I just wanted clarification on that. I will raise again the issue of hundreds of children impacted by sodium valproate. My colleague Deputy Conway-Walsh engages regularly with people in this sector. They still do not have a full disability pathway in place to deliver the supports and services promised to them. That is the barest minimum owed to these children while we await an independent inquiry. I thank the Members and the Minister of State for being here but there is not sufficient funding in the budget to…

I too extend a welcome to the National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers and service users in the Gallery. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, recently announced the intention of SIPTU, Fórsa and INMO members representing section 39 and section 56 workers to initiate indefinite strike action on 17 October. It was announced three weeks ago and I thought surely there would be time to resolve the issue before they went to strike. If this industrial action is not averted, serious hardship will befall fami…

What actions has the Department taken to date to ensure the provision of appropriate facilities and interview suites in Courts Service buildings for those who are vulnerable or who have invisible or visible disabilities?

I am conscious that we all need to become more aware and have an understanding of disability in general but invisible disabilities in particular. I am talking mainly about autistic people. Autistic people gave evidence at a recent disability committee meeting about their experience with the Courts Service. They felt there were absolutely no supports in place for them and they find it very difficult to fit into that system. Dealing with the legal aspect, if they have to apply for free legal aid, that is a very compl…

The Minister of State spoke about training for court staff, which is very important because the discrepancy across staff can be immense. Some are very understanding and some are not. That includes judges, solicitors and people working in the Courts Service. In July of last year, the Joint Committee on Justice published a report on courts and courthouses, which covered some of the issues the Minister of State talked about and I welcome that. For example, the JAM card is very important. The early stages of the modern…

I thank the Minister.

I thank the Minister.

Thank you.

Thank you, Minister.

There has been a devastating sidelining of disabled people in budget 2024. These are not my words but those of the chief executive of one of the largest disability groups in the country, Mr. John Dolan. He went on to say that it is devastating to see the sidelining of disability and a tokenistic attitude to disabled people in budget 2024. He argued that the measures introduced do not come close to meeting the needs of people with disabilities. It is not exactly a resounding endorsement of the disability measures pr…

Yesterday the Minister, in a press conference, expanded slightly on the measures for disability services but we need to hear more about exactly where the money is going. The Minister announced that there would be capital funding of €23.7 million to provide for the upgrade and development of disability services. We do not have specific details on how this will be allocated. Will some of it be allocated to decongregation? I really hope so. In 2022, only 35 people were transitioned from congregated settings into suppo…

On Monday ICTU announced the intention of SIPTU, Fórsa and INMO members to initiate indefinite strike action from 17 October over the Government's ongoing refusal to properly address the pay disparity for section 39, section 10 and section 56 workers. It was fairly clear that the Government knew the offer made in July would be rejected. The Government now has three weeks to engage seriously and make a sufficient offer to the unions to ensure that this issue is dealt with. Section 39 organisations provide adult disa…

There is a long history of abysmal waiting lists and agonising waiting times for children with spina bifida and scoliosis. For years, this has been a recurring issue that government after government has failed to address, time after time. In 2017, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, set a target for a maximum wait time of four months for surgery but this has never been met. As of June this year, 287 children are on a waiting list for spinal surgery, 120 of whom have been waiting more than a year. Dur…

That is not true.

I want to raise concern about the service provided by the Irish Wheelchair Association in Cavan to disabled people and wheelchair users. The service has been curtailed since the Covid pandemic due to difficulty with recruitment and retention of staff and is in danger of closing. It recruits staff, trains them for six months and then they leave to go to the HSE or section 38 organisations. When will the Government address the pay parity issue regarding section 39 organisations? If this is not done, they will continu…

We are again discussing the housing crisis, which is continually and consistently getting worse in every part of the country. The homeless figure now stands at 12,500. This is a serious underestimation because it does not take into account all the people who are sleeping in their parents' box rooms, sofa surfing in their friends' houses or sleeping on the streets. Housing is the reason that so many of our young people are emigrating to Australia, Canada and America. They cannot afford to live here. The cost of rent…

The division is deferred until the weekly division time tomorrow evening.

The Government and the Minister for Education promised that primary and post-primary schools would have ongoing funding for ICT budgets until 2027, when there would then be a review. This budget, which is calculated on the type of school and the roll numbers, was to come from a €200 million package announced by the Government and to be provided to the schools in the period 2022 to 2027 as part of the national development plan, NDP. Without consultation, the ICT budget for schools seems to have disappeared and has n…

I thank the Minister of State, but what he told me does not answer the question about the 2022-23 school year and the fact that some schools have committed funding that they expected to get from this grant. The financial support services unit, FSSU, produced a grant schedule for the 2022-23 academic year and the ICT grant was listed as part of this. Schools expected this money to perhaps come through in December 2022, as it had in December 2021. The next thing that happened was that it was moved on the schedule and…