Ms Joan Carthy:

On behalf of the IWA, I thank the committee for inviting us here today. To follow on from what Dr. McCarthy said, I just want to talk about the impact that disability proofing budgets will have on people.

disability proofing future budgets is not just of the utmost importance, it is essential for the thousands of Irish citizens with disabilities who want the same rights, choices and opportunities in how they live their lives. People with disabilities did not reap the benefits enjoyed by others during the Celtic tiger years yet they suffered disproportionate, life-changing negative impacts due to the severe cuts applied to the disability sector and health services during the economic downturn. Since 2008, the budget for disability services has been reduced by €136 million. While there was a small increase in last year's budget which brought expenditure up to €1.772 billion, €1 billion has been spent on residential services that only cater for 1.3% of people with disabilities.

Responsibility for disability stretches across all Departments. The IWA calls on the committee to ensure that the Government plays its part in providing fairness and equality for people with disabilities. This means delivering appropriate investment in the personal assistant service, increasing the supply of wheelchair-accessible social housing and funding a fully accessible transport system for all.

For the purposes of this presentation, I would like to the concentrate on the personal assistant service, which is the cornerstone, foundation and lifeblood of community services for people with disabilities. This service not only assists with tasks that people with disabilities cannot do for themselves, it also supports people to engage fully in the community, live independently, progress with further education and, for many, take up employment.

It is important to give a real example of how the Government's decisions affect the lives of people with disabilities and, more importantly, to show how a lack of disability proofing has negative impacts. I know of two people with disabilities who have decided to live together with the support of the personal assistant service. This vital service has not only helped them get out of bed in the mornings, it also assists them throughout the day. As one of them said, it gave them the opportunity to be part of society, take up employment and contribute to the workforce and pay taxes. During the years of austerity budgets, the couple were informed that their personal assistant hours would be cut and that they would have to manage with a skeleton service of basic hours that would barely cover the time needs relating to personal care. The impact of the reduction meant they were faced with having to cut back their working hours and reduce much needed therapies. They also could not even consider socialising of any description. Is this any way for people to live? Is it not terrible to build an independent life for oneself and actively live in an inclusive society only for it to be taken away because funding for vital disability services is not seen as a priority, and to not have a voice in Government and no system of protection? There is a problem with the way the Government sees or understands what is meant by a personal assistant service. The service is not a home help service or a care package. In fact, it is a way of life that enables persons with disabilities to do all the things that the members here, who are their peers, take for granted.

Without disability proofing, the HSE has stretched hours in the personal assistant service due to a chronic lack of investment. For example, a person with a disability has a care package of 64 hours. If he or she dies, then his or her hours, which were previously assigned to one person, are reallocated across five or six people. This means that the individuals receive a totally inappropriate service that does not meet their requirements.

There are figures that tell us about the amount of personal assistant hours provided but, unfortunately, there are no figures that reflect the scale of the unmet need for people who require such services. The lack of such vital information makes it impossible for the Government to plan or fund an appropriate service. Ireland has an ageing population and, therefore, more people will be reported as having disabilities. People who have disabilities and who already have services in place are living longer and will require extra support in the coming years. Does the Government have a plan for such an inevitability? Plans are in place for other sectors.

The Government needs to disability proof future budgets and ensure that the unmet needs of people with disabilities are catered for. Vital services cannot be cut as a result of the lack of understanding of the true value of a personal assistant service to a person with a disability. The value-for-money policy is based on people being moved into the community but the Government has continued to cut the only community enabling service, namely, that relating to personal assistants, currently in operation. Decongregation, new models of day services, etc., are all based on high functioning personal assistant services. There is a need for an extra 500,000 personal assistance hours to be injected into the system to cater for those people who receive inappropriate services. This would cost €12.5 million.

We strongly encourage members to consider the long-term, positive impacts investment in this sector and the service will have on the Exchequer. We suggest that a standing committee or office be put in place in order to oversee the disability proofing of budgets and all policies.