I welcome that the Government is not opposing this motion. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has acknowledged that respite services are not receiving the support they need and rightfully deserve. These are vital services and must be funded adequately. The Minister of State must ensure all respite services are brought back, initially, to pre-pandemic levels, maintain existing capacity in the sector and prevent further closures such as those we are seeing in counties Donegal, Cork and Wexford. The Ministers of …

It is a chicken-and-egg situation. If younger people were getting regular respite services, they might not need residential care as quickly as they do. Quite a number of teenagers go into residential care because they have not received the supports and respite in communities they need. They then require residential care. This is linked to independent living. We know people are entitled to independent living under the UNCRPD. There is a deficit in that regard. I have heard from the council that people are languishin…

What measures is the Minister taking to address the severe shortage of childcare provision and early education provision? I ask him to make a statement on the matter.

I will talk about my county of Cavan but I am sure it is reflective of what is happening elsewhere. The Cavan childcare committee, as well as a number of providers, have reported a crisis with the provision of childcare, particularly for children aged under two years. Many of the baby rooms are closing because the ratio is three children to one childcare professional. Providers are taking the decision that they would be better off having a larger number of older children needing just one childcare provider. Provide…

I spoke to another service provider based in Blacklion, which is way over in west Cavan. That service has a waiting list of roughly 60. One of the biggest problems there is not space; it is retaining staff because many staff are leaving to become special needs assistants, SNAs, and so on. In addition, many Ukrainian families have been moved into that area. Those parents cannot go out to work because they cannot source childcare provision meaning that neither the children nor the adults are being integrated into the…

Will the Minister outline the actions he has taken to resolve the concerns highlighted in the report, Making Rights Real for People with Disabilities in Prison, by the Irish Penal Reform Trust?

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The report, which was published in 2020, identified significant concerns about the environmental accessibility of Irish prisons. Some individuals were unable to leave their cells or their wings for large portions of their prison stay and had limited access to education, employment and recreational activities. The report makes a number of recommendations, one of which is that accessibility audits be carried out. I am aware that some of our prisons are in older buildings, …

Training for all staff is also very important so that they have a better understanding of the need not to discipline prisoners for behaviours related to their disability. Solitary confinement for anyone with a disability should be prohibited. It is also recommended that the service would provide quiet cells for those with sensory issues. The Irish Prison Service is doing an excellent job. Representatives of the service appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters in recent months and said th…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the topic of autism and disability assessments and supports today. I thank the Labour Party for bringing this motion forward. All 91 children's disability network teams, CDNTs, are up and running since 2021. The establishment of these teams was part of the reconfiguration of children's disability services and the aim was to ensure fairer access and clearer pathways to assessments and therapies for children and young people with autism or a disability. These aims are simply not …

A few days ago, the Taoiseach made a comment about my party's policies where he used a term "slow learners". I do not care what the Taoiseach thinks about my party policies. In fact, I would be worried and wondering where we were going wrong if he agreed with them. However, I care about the choice of words because he has caused deep upset to disabled people, especially those with intellectual disabilities. Language is important. Some words are not appropriate, whether it is in relation to disability, sexual orienta…

The consultation that led to the new National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 was inclusive and was welcomed positively across the board by disabled people and their representative organisations. It raised hopes and expectations for civil society organisations and their members. More than a year later, however, the housing strategy implementation plan initially expected in June 2022 has still not been released, in spite of the urgency and despair faced by many disabled people waiting for housing. Thi…

I welcome the fact that it is going to be published in a few weeks, and I sincerely hope that timeline is adhered to because we are a year past the expected date of publication. I hope the plan will see the lack of co-ordination which has existed between housing and other supports being addressed as well. Providing housing is one thing but unless one provides the personal assistance service, for example, or the home care supports, people cannot live independently in the community without them. It is important to en…

I have been informed by parents in Cavan in recent days that the only speech and language therapist employed in the children's disability network team is leaving within a few weeks, which means there will be no speech and language therapist there. The management is actively trying to recruit a therapist but it is having serious issues and problems. I know it is a countrywide problem and is not just in Cavan. I just feel the progressing disability services for children and young people programme, PDS, is failing. It…

As someone who grew up in a rural area, built a house on the farm I grew up on and lived there with my children who attended the same school I did, I certainly support people being allowed to live in a rural area. This is not to say that planning should not be sustainable - it must be and the environment must be protected - but we have to be fair to people who wish to live in a rural community. I see depopulation occurring in many rural areas. It is having a detrimental effect on communities. We see the schools clo…

I commend the Regional Group on raising this important matter. It is an issue that is discussed regularly at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters and at practically every meeting with disabled people that I attend. It is estimated that by 2026, disabled people will account for 16% of the population and it is crucial that this cohort of society has access to transport supports. People with disabilities should be able to live full and active lives within their communities but many obstacles remain that work to p…

I was contacted regarding a site at Kingscourt in County Cavan. It has been zoned for housing and has the ability to provide 50 to 60 new homes for Kingscourt. A construction company put together a planning application for the site and found out there is not sufficient capacity in the wastewater treatment plant for the town to allow any further development. It has been suggested that a temporary wastewater treatment plant be constructed on the site in the meantime, but that is so costly it would leave the developme…

The Good Friday Agreement was signed on 10 April 1998. It is not putting it too strongly to describe it as probably the most important political agreement of our time. It brought an end to almost three decades of conflict and is held up by many internationally as an example of how deep-rooted conflicts can be resolved. It is not perfect. After all, it was a compromise between conflicting political positions after decades of violence and generations of division. Crucial elements of the agreement have still not been …

We are calling for the introduction of time-limited mortgage interest relief for homeowners hit by interest rate increases. It is a sensible, affordable and necessary measure aimed at supporting homeowners facing significant increases in their mortgage costs, and they are significant. One of my constituents is a young self-employed woman whose husband was working up to a year ago, suffered a stroke at the age of 37 and is now on illness benefit. They have two children, one of whom has additional needs for whom they…

I welcome the Bill and will support it. I particularly welcome the fact that there are 24 new judges coming in a few weeks and a further 20 to follow. I particularly welcome that they are for both the lower courts, the District Court and the Circuit Court. There has been an increase in the number of judges in the past decade but this has been more for the higher courts. The reason I welcome this for the lower courts is that most of the cases brought to my attention relate to family law and domestic abuse. The delay…

We are in the midst of a housing crisis where nearly 12,000 people are accessing emergency support, and 3,500 of those are children. This is not counting our rough sleepers and it is not counting those who are sofa surfing. Then we hear that the Minister did not spend almost €1 billion of the Government's capital budget for social and affordable housing since 2020. It just beggars belief. I cannot understand it. This is affecting people across the spectrum. Last week we heard from the teachers' conference that teac…