Richard Boyd Barrett Urges Taoiseach to Take Charge of Disability Rights
Richard Boyd Barrett suggested the Taoiseach should transfer responsibility for disability and disability services into the Taoiseach's department and take a lead role on disability rights. He argued this change would provide the needed overview to drive equality and meet commitments under the UNCRPD.
Proposed departmental change
Richard Boyd Barrett proposed that the Taoiseach's department take the lead role on disability and disability services, arguing it would give the area the importance and significance it deserves and enable delivery of equality and real rights for people with disabilities.
Broken DART lifts and activist action
He highlighted ongoing problems with DART station lifts, noting two disability activists were removed from Connolly Station during a campaign to highlight constant lift breakdowns. He said recent weekends saw more lifts broken than previously, with ten lifts out over one weekend and Seapoint out of service for months.
Cross-departmental responsibility gap
Boyd Barrett stressed that disability issues currently cut across multiple departments - education, social protection, health and others - and that no single department is taking an overview to drive commitments embedded in the UNCRPD.
Carers and budget criticism
He referenced carers protesting outside over what they did not receive in what he described as the Taoiseach's "rather miserable budget" and noted deputies had raised concerns about mental health and disability services in leaders' questions.
Call to the Taoiseach
He framed the recommendation as a positive, practical suggestion for the Taoiseach to make his department the driver on disability policy and services, to ensure coordinated action and to uphold equality for people with disabilities.
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Teasach, I have a positive suggestion for something your department could do, which is to take the lead role in the area of disability and disability rights and services into your department. I mean, even today, I think two deputies raised various issues of mental health services and disability services and leaders' questions. We had carers outside protesting about what they didn't get in your rather miserable budget. This morning, two disability activists were removed from Connolly Station as part of their ongoing campaign to highlight the constant breakdown of lifts on DART stations, which I raised last week, and then this weekend, there were more lifts broken than at any time in the past. Ten lifts out at the weekend. Seapoint, in my own area, has been out for months now, and it just goes on. There's so many issues, right, and what disability activists are saying is, given that disability issues cross a whole number of departments, education does a bit, social protection does a bit, health does a bit, and you go on through the list, there's nobody taking the overview and driving through the commitment to equality, which is enshrined in the UNCRPD, okay, and your department, it seems to me, is ideally suited, it would give it the sort of importance and significance it deserves, to actually achieve equality and real rights for people with disabilities, so that is a suggestion to you, Taoiseach, that you would take the area of disability and disability services into your department to become the driver in that area.
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