Is í seo an chéad deis a bhí agam comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis an Taoiseach. I wish the Taoiseach well in his work.

We are entering pre-budget mode and we know that Departments and Ministers are examining figures. We have had a number of pre-budget submissions and attended pre-budget presentations. The national economic dialogue is on today. Listening to the various figures being bandied about, I was struck by a headline about the Government being in a "budgetary straitjacket". There will be many justifiable demands on whatever is available and decisions will have to be made. I hope those decisions will be to make the greatest difference possible, especially as regards inequality in society.

One group of people who experience inequality in a more acute way than anyone else are people with disabilities. I acknowledge what the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, did recently to get people with disabilities into employment via the Making Work Pay for People with Disabilities report, but many of its recommendations are still to be implemented. People with disabilities tell us that they and us are a long way from the kind of society in which they would like to live. The facts speak for themselves. A February survey of income and living conditions showed some improvement in overall general poverty rates, but they are worsening for people with disabilities. Such people are at almost twice the risk of living in poverty as the general population. Half of all people with disabilities have extra costs, which have been estimated at €207 per week for some. They are also facing housing problems, with fewer wheelchair accessible houses being built. Households headed by people with disabilities are twice as likely to experience unemployment as other households. In terms of consistent poverty levels, people with disabilities suffer more than those without disabilities. We know of poorer education outcomes for people with disabilities. Many people with disabilities are dependent on social welfare as their only source of income. None of this is to mention the various cuts they have suffered in recent budgets. It is an unequal world for people with disabilities.

Instead of giving a little to many that might not make an appreciable difference in their lives, there is an opportunity in budget 2018 to make a real difference in the lives of those with disabilities and a concerted effort to address the poverty and exclusion experienced by many such people and their families.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. Gabhaim buíochas freisin leis an Teachta as an gceist. I thank her very much for acknowledging that the recent statistics from 2015 do show that consistent poverty is down and that income inequality is narrowing, albeit still much worse than where we were before the crisis. It is going in the right direction. I note that the Deputy acknowledged it because I think that people often do not acknowledge that.

The Deputy is absolutely right to say that people with disabilities suffer enormous disadvantage and enormous inequalities in our society, and we have very much more to do to improve living conditions and opportunities for them. In the previous budget, the budget for 2017, there was a considerable increase in funding for disability services. If I remember off the top of my head, I think it was in the region of €60 million. I am sure that we will find room for a further increase in funding for disability services for next year, not least in the area of respite, which I think is very important in giving people a break, and carers in particular. We also had in the social welfare package from March the first increase in weekly payments paid to people with disabilities and their carers in eight or nine years. I am not sure if that is going to be possible again next year, but I hope that it will be.

As the Deputy mentioned, under our Making Work Pay for People with Disabilities report, a number of measures were introduced to assist people with disabilities to re-enter the workforce or enter the workforce. For example, as Minister for Social Protection, I extended the free travel pass for five years to anyone who was on disability allowance and took up work. The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, is working on changes to the medical card thresholds to ensure people on disability allowance and similar payments, if they take up work, do not lose their medical cards. That is an enormous fear people with disabilities have, that if they earn a bit more money, it will be wiped out by the fact they will lose their medical cards. We would hope to have that legislation through this year, which will encourage more people to take up work if they can.

We have also set the target in Departments and public agencies to provide 6% of all jobs to people with disabilities because people who have disabilities, particularly those with severe disabilities like blindness, find it very hard to get through interview processes. One thing that we discussed at Cabinet just this week and agreed to fast-track was a dedicated entry stream for people with disabilities into employment in Departments and Government agencies in order that they could increase their opportunities to enter employment.

In addition to that, my previous Department, the Department of Social Protection, is going to run an information campaign in the coming months informing people with disabilities of the opportunities and entitlements now available to them and the fact they can take a trial of work knowing that their disability allowance will be restored if the trial of work does not work out. Many people with disabilities fear that if they take up employment and it does not work out, they will have a difficulty getting back on welfare. We are going to give them an assurance that that is not the case.

We are discussing some 600,000 people, approximately 13% of the population. Yesterday, there was a meeting in the audiovisual room on disability being one of the sustainable development goals. A call was made for our aid to be disability inclusive.

There is a glaring omission, that is, Ireland has still not signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We are the only country in the EU that has not signed it. There was a roadmap to ratification, but that has turned into a very long road. Ratification would be an indication of how important this issue is to the Government. Even a slight tweaking of corporation tax would provide all the resources necessary in order that people with disabilities could participate and contribute fully and equally in society. That also means protecting the services that allow for independent living. Will we see ratification by 3 December, which is the international day of persons with disabilities?

I should add to the actions that I mentioned earlier the fact that children in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance are now automatically entitled to a medical card. Ten thousand children who did not receive a medical card previously now have it as an automatic right. I pay tribute to the work of the Minister, Deputy Harris, and Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, in this regard. Thirty thousand young people with disabilities under the age of 16 years in receipt of domiciliary care allowance, DCA, are no longer subject to any review between receiving DCA and reaching the age of 16. That is some real progress with regard to the supports the State offers people with disabilities.

Regarding the convention, I share the Deputy's frustration that it is taking so long to ratify it. We have a different approach from other countries. That convention, for example, has been ratified by Romania and Italy. I do not think anyone would argue that people with disabilities are less disadvantaged in Romania or Italy than they are in Ireland.

The approach other countries follow, however, is to ratify first and implement later whereas we like to implement all the legal provisions first and then ratify, which is a much more meaningful approach. We are considering making an exception on this occasion for this particular convention because it is taking so long to ratify it. We will have a meeting quite soon, which will involve the key Ministers and the Attorney General, to see if we can adopt a different approach because we absolutely want to have the convention ratified by 3 December, as the Deputy has said.