Ms Jacqueline Grogan:

I will be brief as I understand other people also wish to contribute. In terms of education support, in 2011, the time when the cap on special needs assistants was introduced, the budget for the National Council for Special Education was €2.3 million. Given Government policy around mainstreaming, more children with disabilities are entering mainstream education. As there are currently only the same number of special needs assistants in place as there were two years ago, this means a large number of children will not be receiving the support they need to thrive in mainstream education, which at the end of the day can push them back to the special schools. I use the term "special schools" for want of a better phrase.

On the housing adaptation grants, it was reported in July this year that Dublin City Council had at that time spent its yearly allocation for the housing adaptation grants scheme. This also pushes people with disabilities back into residential services or results in their not being discharged from hospitals because the setting to which they are returning is not suitable or adequate for their needs. This goes against Government mainstreaming policy going forward.

On social protection issues, the Department of Social Protection recently introduced a number of labour market activation programmes, which when initially introduced were not accessible to people with disabilities. For example, a person in receipt of disability allowance was not allowed to access JobBridge. This has since been changed. However, as an organisation, we do not believe there are enough labour market activation programmes in place to support people with disabilities getting back into mainstream employment.