‘No buck passing between departments’ on disability reform – Taoiseach

There can be “no buck passing” or “hiding places” for government departments or agencies on enacting disability reforms, the Taoiseach has said.

Micheal Martin was speaking as he launched a national strategy to promote and better facilitate the participation of disabled people in Irish society.

He said he wanted to see the ambitions of the strategy reflected in the upcoming budget in October, in areas such as employment and income supports.

An extensive consultation process was involved to create the strategy, including interviews, written submissions, town hall events, questionnaires and focus groups with people including disabled women and girls, disabled LGBT+ people and disabled Travellers.

At the launch of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People until 2030 at the Mansion House in Dublin on Wednesday, Lianne Quigley of the Irish Deaf Society said they had worked closely with departments on the strategy.

“Today is a great day, the fanfare and a joy of launching a strategy, but a much more important day lies ahead where we can truly say every objective, every aim of this strategy has been fully realised.”

Asked about measurable targets for the plan, Mr Martin said he wanted to see aspects of the strategy reflected in October’s budget.

He also said there would be implementation plans and “milestones for achievement” as part of the strategy.

“I would actually like to see in the forthcoming budget a manifestation of this in terms of delivery, particularly around income supports, and engaging with the Minister of Social Protection.”

He said they would look at how to incentivise employment and create better access to employment.

“Very often, people are afraid of losing their disability allowance if they go into employment,” he said.

“I think there’s more we can do, and we can be more generous, and the system can be less paranoid, shall I say, or less concerned about how long does a person retain their disability allowance as long as they are working and so on.

“So these are areas we’re looking at with social protection in the forthcoming budget.

“I would like to see in the next budget a demonstrable realisation of the spirit and the aspirations of this strategy.”

He said there would be a unit within the Department of An Taoiseach to bring matters to the Cabinet Subcommittee on Disability “to make sure we get traction” on issues such as therapies in schools.

“I’ve established a disability unit in my department, not just to co-ordinate, but to drive things across all aspects of life for disabled persons in this country, all aspects every department have to engage.

“There can be no hiding place for any government department. There can be no buck passing between departments.”

Tanaiste Simon Harris said one of the issues that had “really come to the fore” was transport for disabled people.

“There’s many, many, many people in services today who could be employed, who could be doing other things, or could be reaching their full potential and actually the missing cog is transport.

“I think when we are actually able to take that laser-like focus, we can take a number of tangible measures that will make a real difference to people’s lives relatively quickly.”

Minister for Children Norma Foley said: “Disabled people will be represented in all of the different subgroups. And as I say, the accountability is enormous here. Everybody must play their part.”