Táimid ag bogadh ar aghaidh anois go dtí an Teachta Cian O'Callaghan.

This country treats disabled people shamefully. Disabled children and their families must battle from the day they are born. It is outrageous that their biggest battle is often with the State to try to get basic services, like an assessment of need, essential therapies or a school place. More than 17,000 children are now waiting to access children's disability network teams, CDNTs. More than 10,000 of them have been waiting for more than a year, with no intervention and no therapy. This wholesale and pervasive State neglect has disastrous and lifelong consequences.

Children have a small and critical window in which to get essential therapies. If they do not, their development will be limited and they will be prevented from reaching their full potential. Often, when children turn 18, whatever meagre supports that do exist then disappear. What remains is fragmented and threadbare. Disabled adults used to have access to supports for personal transport, but ten years ago these schemes were dismantled by the then Fine Gael and Labour Party Government. A decade later, there is still no proper replacement scheme. Transport is about access to education, securing employment or just being able to meet with family and friends. Above all, it means being able to live independently. All of this is being denied to disabled people by a contemptuous and cruel State.

What is the answer of the Tánaiste's Government to this? It wants to demonise and divide disabled people. Under new plans, disabled people will be subjected to medical assessment and categorised into three tiers. This proposal is a carbon copy of a system introduced in the UK under austerity in 2008. It is a discredited policy that led to a disabled man, Errol Graham, a 57-year-old grandfather, starving to death after his out-of-work and housing benefits were stopped. His emaciated body, of just 4.5 stones, was discovered by the bailiffs sent in to evict him. Is this really the model this country wants to emulate?

Yesterday, the Taoiseach seemed to indicate it was. He cited "Benefits Street", a UK television show, that vilified working-class people as a relevant reference point on this topic. The Minister for Social Protection has said she wants to reform the system because disabled people have high levels of poverty and low levels of employment. Does she not think that maybe, just maybe, the State's abject failure to provide vital services, be they medical, educational or transportational, has something to do with this situation? Does the Tánaiste agree with the Taoiseach's view that "Benefits Street" is relevant to the rationale for this reform? Does he also agree with the segregation of disabled people following medical assessment into three separate tiers?

Is the Deputy talking about disability reforms in respect of payments?

Yes.

More broadly, I take issue with some of the language the Deputy used. I know he speaks in good faith, but there is no agenda on this side of the House to demonise any person with special needs or a disability or, indeed, to divide the disability community. I wish to make this very clear.

The State has more to do in respect of providing for disability services and for people's special needs. I refer to the totality of services being provided in health, education, childcare, housing, employability, and providing opportunities for employment. Across the full gamut of services, the State has progressed in many areas, but has much more to do. Over the past 30 years, and certainly since the late 1990s, I would argue that significant progress has been made in the area of education with special needs. We have mainstreamed and transformed education significantly in terms of the provision of special needs assistants, SNAs and the recognition of autism as a special category, which was not recognised until the late 1990s. It is hard to believe this, but these are the facts. Over time, however, special classes and interventions have been provided.

Turning to health, again, in terms of basic services, diagnostics and so on, there have been improvements. Regarding therapies, the situation in this regard is not where I would like it to be. We have made it clear to the HSE that we are not satisfied in respect of access to therapies for children with special needs. In particular, the progressing disability services for children programme was developed by the HSE some years ago. In my view, it has not achieved what it set out to do. This is especially the case in terms of special schools and access to therapies, which I believe should be undertaken in the context of a multidisciplinary approach. Ongoing engagement with the Minister for Health and the HSE is happening in respect of these issues, namely, access to occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and other therapeutic interventions required by children with special needs.

Moving to the mobility issue the Deputy raised, the points he made are legitimate. The Minister for Finance is examining one aspect of this concerning taxation and reforms in this context but also regarding other measures we can provide to enable people to have regular access in a transport context. The Minister for Transport is also focused on this subject. The cost of disability report was published in 2021 and it established that the additional costs of disability run across several policy areas, including housing, equipment, aids and appliances, and care and assistance. We are reflecting on this issue in terms of how we can now mainstream this in terms of payments and so on.

Go raibh maith agat.

There is a Green Paper on disability reform, but no decisions have been made in this respect.

I thank the Tánaiste. We are way over time.

Consultation is ongoing with the stakeholders.

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. The "Benefits Street" programme did demonise welfare recipients and for the Taoiseach to reference it in a discussion on this topic is not appropriate. Does the Tánaiste agree that referencing television programmes that demonise welfare recipients is not an appropriate thing for anyone in the Government to do, including the Taoiseach?

There are two specific things the Government should do now to support disabled people. First, it should introduce a weekly cost-of-disability payment and this should be done in the budget. Will the Government do this? Second, as I said, more than 17,000 children are waiting to access children's disability network teams. Section 39 workers are not paid the same rates as HSE staff, as they used to be. The staff vacancy rate in disability network teams rose to 34% last year. It is as high as 60% in some teams, which is utterly unacceptable. Will the Government pay section 39 workers the same rates as HSE staff? Will it introduce in the budget a cost-of-disability payment?

Regarding these two things, in terms of the cost of disability, the report has been published, as I said. The Department of Social Protection has taken actions to improve employment supports for people with disabilities. Additionally, the earnings disregard for those receiving disability allowance and the blind pension has increased several times in recent years.

A lot of action has been taken to improve incomes. We are looking at the report on the cost of disability in the context of the budget. A range of lump-sum payments were included in budget 2023 to address increases in the cost of living. The review of the reasonable accommodation fund and the disability awareness support scheme was published recently.

On the employment issue, the wage subsidy scheme is being reviewed, with a public consultation being held over the summer. We must do better in employing people with disabilities and giving better opportunities. This applies both to the State, through its Departments and agencies, acting to reach the target that was set and so forth, and to the private sector generally. That is an important aspect if we are to facilitate the employment of people with disabilities.

On the section 39 workers, discussions are still under way and there is engagement between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the social partners involved. Those discussions will continue with a view to achieving a resolution of that issue.