Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate in support of people with disabilities. I commend Deputy McGrath on tabling this motion. It is important and timely, in light of the recent cuts that have taken place, that we should be debating this issue tonight and tomorrow night.

The Statement of Government Priorities 2014-2016 published last Friday stated:

The Government will implement the Report of the Value for Money and Policy Review of the Disability Services Programme, which recommends a significant restructuring of the disability service by linking budgets to activity, outputs, quality and outcomes for service users. The new model of personalised, community-based service must provide greater choice for people with disabilities.

Those are fine words but one of the recommendations, No. 3.8, of the value for money review states that the role and funding of agencies that are wholly or substantially engaged in representation rather than direct service provision should be reappraised having regard to the recommendations in this review.

It seems in this case the Government has hit the ground running because before these priorities were published, it had already cut the funding for 26 groups to save the whopping sum of €1.2 million. I refer to groups that play a vital advocacy role on behalf of people with disabilities to push for and ensure the services are retained for them and that the services are developed for those people with disabilities. I refer to groups like the Irish Deaf Society which had its funding cut and had to close its advocacy service, which was used by more than 5,000 people every year. That is the impact these cuts are having on these groups.

Groups such as the Neurological Alliance of Ireland will have to shut down their services in December unless they can source alternative funding. This is a group that represents more than 700,000 people with neurological conditions.The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government turned down its grant on the grounds that the people it represents do not constitute a disadvantaged group. How could people suffering from a wide range of neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease and epilepsy not represent a disadvantaged group?

The review and the change in the Government's priorities in implementing the change in disability services may be the right way to go but the way to do it would have been to maintain the groups that work on behalf of people with disabilities while rolling out the service. It seems the Government has taken away their voice before these new services have started to be implemented. When will the evaluation of the service by service users take place? These groups could play a vitally important role in contributing to the roll-out and the benefits disability services might gain for their members and the people they represent by having an input into the changes taking place, but their voices are not being heard, and all to save €1.2 million.

The Government should reinstate the funding for these groups. If the proper services for people with disabilities are put in place and the Government opts for the person-centred role, as it has said it will do, there will be no need for these groups in the future and their funding can be wound down while the roll-out of the service takes place.

It smacks of getting the voices out of the way before implementing the services. Unfortunately, we will be here in a couple of years' time debating this and wondering when and how this will be rolled out in an effective manner, which will help and benefit people with disabilities.

The CSO published a survey, Work and Poverty in Ireland, which found that the risk of living in a jobless household is higher where the household has an adult with a disability. More than one third of those living in jobless households were children and almost one fifth were adults with a disability. These groups are being targeted by the withdrawal of the funding for their national organisations which advocate on their behalf. These organisations advocate for the need for proper services and for the development of services on their behalf and they should continue to be funded while the Government rolls out this new disability service.

It is interesting that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the General Assembly in 2006 and signed by Ireland in 2007 but we have not yet ratified and implemented it seven years down the road. That shows the commitment of previous Governments and this Government to people with disabilities to ensure they get the services they deserve and need so they can live a reasonable life.

People with disabilities and their families must fight for every single service and benefit they get. Their lives seem to be consumed by fighting the system. When will we have a system which recognises them as equal citizens and people who have an equal role to play in our society and they get service as of right? It does not auger well when one sees that their advocates have had their funding withdrawn in advance of the roll out of this.

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