Speech by Minister of State for Disability Hildegarde Naughton at the launch of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030

Check against delivery

Good afternoon everybody.

It is wonderful to be here with you all to mark publication of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030.

As Minister for Disability, I have witnessed first-hand the passion and commitment that disabled people bring to advocating for a more inclusive Ireland, and for continually highlighting the need to provide more and better services.

Disabled people and their representative organisations have given so generously of their time in the development of this document - to you I give my heartfelt thanks.

This strategy would not be so ambitious without your input and determination.

Thanks to that input, the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030 reflects the lived experience of the very people it is designed to support.

And this experience is essential to ensure that everything that we aim to achieve in the months and years ahead makes a real difference to individuals and their families.

From today, we get to work on delivery and implementation.

To achieve the ambition we so clearly set out, we will need stakeholders to hold us - the government - to account, and to tell us what is working well and what needs to be changed.

There are many good things happening in the area of disability, incredible work being done in communities across Ireland, and we want to build on this.

But many disabled people rightly believe their needs are not being met, and that we need new ways of doing things.

For example, we continue to recruit therapists from a range of disciplines for our CDNTs and our special schools, but we know there aren’t enough.

That’s why we must also invest in more third level places for therapists, in alternative therapies, in initiatives like autism assistance dogs and Variety Ireland’s recycle mobility trikes which are so important.

This government is investing in a massive house building programme, but not enough homes are being provided for people with disabilities.

But we know that when appropriate housing is provided, in places like Glensheen Court in Ennis or at Cromane near Killorglin in Co Kerry which I recently visited, it makes a massive difference to the lives of disabled people and their families, particularly elderly parents who know their child will have a lifelong home to call their own.

We know that disabled people, for a variety of reasons, are less likely to have a job.

But organisations like the Together Academy, which is here today, show that many people with a disability who want to work can, if the right supports are in place.

Disabled people are often prevented from enjoying the same opportunities as other citizens across a range of areas including education, transport and participation in community life.

This is a reality and a lived experience that we must acknowledge.

But it is not a reality that I, as Minister for Disability, accept.

We must change how we do things, and give disabled people the same rights and opportunities as every other citizen.

That is why this strategy is so important.

This strategy calls out where we need to do better in areas such as increasing respite places, provision of more day services, growing the number of Irish Sign Language interpreters and harnessing the power of assistive technology.

It highlights how we must deliver supports to employers and disabled people to remove barriers to work. Conduct walkability audits to make sure our towns and cities are accessible. And remove barriers which prevent disabled people from enjoying public spaces like parks, galleries and museums and partaking in cultural events.

It falls on each government department, and each minister, to make sure that happens. No-one department or minister is responsible. We all are.

It is only by matching our words and promises with action that we can earn the trust of disabled people.

That is why we recognise today as the beginning of a journey together, and not the final destination.

We know there is more work to do, and we are grateful for the partnership of everyone in this room.

Thank you.