Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 8 May 2024

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 16, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on children, education and disability oversees programme for Government commitments relating to children, education and disability. It receives detailed reports on identified policy areas such as child poverty and well-being, local area disadvantage and the reform of disability services.

In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and its committees, I meet Ministers on an individual basis to focus on different issues. Disability services are a key focus for me. I have made this matter a priority since becoming Taoiseach, and that is why I have established this new Cabinet committee. Being very honest, I did not think that as long as disability services were part of the remit of the Cabinet committee on health they were going to get the proper attention they deserve. That was because the Cabinet committee on health deals with so many issues, including ones that we discuss in this House on a very regular basis.

The new Cabinet committee will have a particular focus on the forthcoming new national disability strategy, which will set out a blueprint for further realisation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD.

The membership of the Cabinet committee comprises me, as Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Ministers for Health, the environment, children, Education, public expenditure, Finance, Social Protection, housing and further and higher education and the Ministers of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion and disability. Other Ministers and Ministers of State can be invited to participate as required. The first meeting of the Cabinet committee took place on 22 April. The next meeting will be on 13 May.

The most recent HSE staff census and the work course review highlighted a staff vacancy rate of 34%, or 707 vacancies, in 2022. This is up substantially from a 28% vacancy rate, or 524 vacancies, in 2021. The 2023 figures are not in yet but from engagement with and listening to parents, it is highly likely this will show that the situation has not improved and has become even worse.

In budget 2024, the Government announced that approximately €11 million would be allocated to address waiting lists for clinical assessments. We were told that this funding was being utilised to procure diagnostic autism assessments from the private sector. However, seven months later, we are still waiting for this to be rolled out to parents.

Staff in disability network teams run by section 39 organisations are still waiting to be paid the same rate as those in HSE-run services. We were told this was sorted out in October of last year when the Government reached an agreement with the unions representing section 39 workers. However, the pay agreement has not yet been honoured and section 39-led children's disability network teams and disability service providers in general are unable to recruit and are bleeding staff. It is ridiculous that the Government has allocated €11 million to ease waiting lists but has not spent it and that it has committed to resolving pay parity between HSE and section 39 workers but that this still has not been done. Every day, the wait continues for the families. What actions is the Taoiseach taking to reduce the staff vacancy rate?

I want to raise the matter of childcare with the Taoiseach. As he knows, the workforce in the sector is 98% female. The sector has had a very hard time trying to be heard by the Government. Meaningful engagement has been lacking. I specifically want to refer to Shannon. Last year, I raised the imminent closure of one of only two childcare providers in Shannon. I said then that they could not continue to firefight as they had been doing. If the issue is core funding, then how it is being administered seems to favour the new businesses coming on stream and is leaving the older businesses behind. In rural communities in County Clare, for example, we have many small family-run businesses and we are seeing them close. Rural areas are being impacted. They have little supply in the first instance. The little supply they do have is starting to diminish. I also want to mention childminders. I have been contacted by a number of childminders who are not happy with the lack of understanding of what childminding is. They say the new regulations do not have the appropriate language and they would like to have meaningful engagement on it.

I also want to raise the issue of childcare. I and a number of Deputies in the constituency of Cork North Central met Northside Community Enterprises in the past. We continue to liaise with it. The issue is that the old provider, the voluntary service, withdrew its childcare provision from four or five childcare services on the north side of Cork city. The old committee had run its course. The difficulty is that for the new committee to meet the regulations and standards, an investment of €350,000 in the building will be required. It is willing to put in some of its own resources but there is a fairly large shortfall in terms of getting the service up to standard. To be fair, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is aware of this. He is working on a new capital scheme for new enterprises. We need this in place by September. I cannot stress the urgent need to get the project up and running.

"Nothing about us without us" is the motto of the movement for disability rights. The Government's failure to respect this principle led to its decision to launch a Green Paper on disability reform without proper consultation. Its failure to respect that principle meant the Green Paper was doomed from the start. When the Taoiseach was elected, we were told it would open up a new era for disability rights. There should be proper consultation with disabled persons organisations before the first steps were taken. To date, no disabled persons organisation that I am aware of has received an invitation from the Taoiseach's office to attend talks on this matter. Does the Taoiseach intend to send out invitations soon?

Tomorrow there will be a debate on special needs education. This is something People Before Profit requested at the Business Committee. It was prompted by a series of meetings we had on the issue of special needs. The issues brought up by parents and teachers included that the algorithm, in terms of removing complex needs as a criteria for allocating special education resources, has left one third losing resources. Generally, people asked why the hell the Government does not trust schools and parents in terms of setting out their needs and accepting those needs. What also came across again and again was in all the key areas, whether teachers themselves, special education teachers, SNAs, CDNTs or CAMHS, the big problem is staff. There does not seem to be a concerted drive to recruit people in these areas, recognising how damaging it is for our children with special needs that we are failing to resource these posts.

I want to raise the issue of the large financial burden associated with supervised visits. This is a situation where a family court orders a parent or guardian to have supervised access to their children. The State does not provide this supervised access. The parents have to pay fees to a private company in order to spend time with their children. Some of these private companies are massively overcharging vulnerable parents who just want to spend time with their kids. One of my constituents states that her personal experience of using the service provided by Supervised Access Ireland was that she was paying the fee for a three-hour visit when getting only a two-hour visit, and when her visits increased to three hours instead of paying the three-hour visit fee of €104.25 she was charged €139, the cost of a four-hour visit. A single mother, who eventually wants to reunite with her son, has to pay one third of her wages for a three-hour visit with him. Surely this is a basic support the State should be providing. The State is making the order to say there needs to be supervised visits. Surely it is a service the State should provide.

Last Friday evening parents of students living in Donaghmoyne, Lisdoonan and other parts of south Monaghan who attend three post-primary schools in Carrickmacross and Scoil Phádraig primary school in Corduff were notified by Bus Éireann that their school buses would be unavailable from yesterday morning, essentially the next school day. This is a familiar story of families having little or no notice of disruption to a school bus service. They are told the service will remain out of service until an alternative operator is found. Does the Taoiseach think this is acceptable? If not, what will he do about it? The reason for this cancellation is that the bus driver turned 70. He is deemed fit to drive other buses but is precluded from doing so for Bus Éireann for these school runs. Despite having this arbitrary rule, Bus Éireann clearly made no plan and has left these families and students, some of whom are facing exams in the coming weeks, in the lurch. The Minister will not answer any questions and calls it an operational matter. This is not good enough in my view. What does the Taoiseach say to these and other families? How will he help to resolve their predicament?

When the Taoiseach took office a month ago, a mother wrote to him asking for help with her six-year-old son. He has severe autism. The family has been refused a domiciliary care allowance. Payment is not supposed to be based on the type of disability but on the level of physical or mental impairment if the child's needs are substantially more than those of other children but this is not what is happening on the ground. Instead families in real need are being denied support. In this case, the mother applied, appealed, went through the oral hearing and was ultimately refused. At the hearing she was told that despite providing all of the possible evidence it fell short of what was described as the high evidential bar prescribed by legislation. This is a key issue. The legislation, or how it is being interpreted, is excluding families in real need. In her letter to the Taoiseach she said she feels disappointed and let down by our country.

She says she has to go to extremes to try and get what her son deserves. This is a huge priority for them as they cannot afford the therapies her son needs now. She asks the Taoiseach to urgently review the situation to ensure that children with severe autism are not excluded. She described to me how she had to pay €120 per session plus €600 for assessment. We are pushing these families in distress into severe poverty.

I thank the Deputies for raising these issues. I might go in reverse order and start with Deputy Conway-Walsh. I am happy to take that up. I have not seen the letter. If the Deputy wants to provide it, I will be happy to take a look at it. My general experience with the domiciliary care allowance is, as the Deputy said, that the structure of the scheme is worded in such a way as not to be prescriptive to a specific disability but rather to the issue of substantial needs above and beyond other children of that age. I am paraphrasing. There is a process to go through, appeals and the likes. It sounds like that has been exhausted, from what the Deputy tells me. I am happy to take a look at it. I know the domiciliary care allowance scheme is very important to many people. I will take a look at the letter if the Deputy provides me with a copy.

To Deputy Carthy, I will ask the Minister to respond directly on the issue being faced by student and parents at three post-primary schools. The Deputy referred to one primary school in south Monaghan and the result of what sounds like a very sudden change regarding school transport. I am of the view that the age of people driving the buses should be reviewed. My understanding is that the Government took a decision to the effect that this would happen. I will certainly follow up and see where that stands. This arbitrary age limit is offensive to many people of that age who are providing a very important service. The absence of that service is obviously being felt by the Deputy's constituents. In addition, people do not suddenly just turn 70. It is important, therefore, that the bus service is planning for any such retirement situation. I do not know enough about the specific situation but I will certainly take a look at it and ask the Minister, Deputy Foley, to engage with the Deputy on it.

Deputy Paul Murphy raised the huge cost of supervised visits. This is something I will familiarise myself with. As the Deputy acknowledged, supervised visits are very important, but so, too, is a parent's aspiration to be ultimately reunited with their child. That link between a parent and a child is obviously paramount. The idea that it would be costing somebody a third of their income to see their child in circumstances allowed for by a court is concerning. I will take a look at that because it does sound like a very significant burden. I will come back to the Deputy directly.

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I will be following closely the debate on special needs education tomorrow. It is important that we are having that debate. I can quote figures, facts and the likes to show improvements that have been made over the years. There have been improvements in terms of the number of children with special educational needs in mainstream, the number of people now working in special education, the number of SNAs. However, as someone who live in the real world, I am also very aware of the challenges still being faced by a number of families - challenges around school places, transition and pathways. I will follow a transcript of that debate tomorrow. I will say, however - I will be happy to get the Deputy some figures on this because I do not have them to hand - that recruitment for therapy posts is a matter in respect of which progress is being made. For all the debate around it, we did actually have provision within the health budget to hire a significant number of people into disability services, including our children's disability teams. A note that I do not have with me but that I read previously does indicate to me some good progress being made around recruitment. I fully accept that we need to recruit many more people in the therapy posts. I have also asked the Minister for further and higher education to come up with a plan in terms of how we can expand the number of training places across third level institutions in respect of therapy provision.

In response to Deputy Barry, when I became Taoiseach, in consultation with the Minister, I thought the right thing to do was to scrap the Green Paper. I heard the depth of feeling from people in respect of it. I believe in "nothing about us without us." I do believe in that level of engagement. Of course, the Cabinet committee on disability is by its very nature made up of members of the Cabinet but certainly as Taoiseach I do intent to meet directly with disability groups. I have had correspondence from a number of them and informal conversations with a small number of them. I will be issuing invitations to engage more substantively with them. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, does a great deal of that engagement as well.

Can I beg the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence for 20 seconds? I will be very quick.

On Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan's issue in respect of childcare, capital investment and the north side enterprise, the Minister is bringing forward that capital funding, as the Deputy said. I take the point he makes around the time sensitivity in north Cork. I will come back to him directly on that.

Similarly, in the context of Deputy Wynne's query on Shannon, I can point to progress that is being made on capacity nationwide, but I know that capacity may not be equally distributed. I do hope the new capital investment funds will assist. The child-minding regulations, I should say, are only in draft. The final version will look substantially different and there will be engagement.

I will get Deputy Tully a note on the impact the €11 million will make this year in terms of waiting lists. The Government will honour the pay agreements. I will follow up directly with the HSE as to when that will be implemented for people. On workforce vacancies, as I said to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I do think we made good progress on recruitment this year.