Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Finian McGrath for tabling this Private Members' motion. While it mainly focuses on services for people with disabilities, every one of us will probably refer to the cutbacks to the Pobal grant scheme which were announced. Some 26 organisations, which provide essential advocacy for people with disabilities, face serious curtailment or closure. One of the things people talk about when they get a diagnosis for a child with a disability is the isolation. Very often the support groups are the most important part of dealing with the issue. We will see organisations being closed down, because we have been told the grant scheme has been oversubscribed, without evaluating the consequences of that, which will be immense.

I cannot believe the Government keeps inflicting this kind of thing on itself. We saw the medical card fiasco, which was focused on discretionary medical cards, and the issue of the domiciliary care allowance last year. It is entirely predictable that these things will be problematic. To take away or to reduce services provided by organisations like MS Ireland, Muscular Dystrophy Ireland, the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association, the Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland - Huntington's is a really cruel disease - and the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland is unbelievable and it will have a major impact in the autumn. This should be looked at again as a matter of urgency before the Dáil rises.

Our neurological services are ranked among the worst in Europe behind Croatia and Serbia, which have very difficult economic situations to overcome. We have the lowest number of consultant neurologists in Europe. More than 700,000 people in Ireland live with a neurological condition. This is set to increase to 860,000 in ten years' time. It is a huge proportion of our population. Some 15,000 people require specialist rehabilitation each year and 89,000 individuals are made disabled by neurological conditions and yet this group's advocacy services are being reduced.

This is happening at a time when the charity sector is under serious pressure, some of which is self-inflicted damage as in the case of Rehab and the CRC. There are, however, a lot of empty pockets which would have been contributors to some of these vital services. This needs to be looked at again as a matter of urgency this week.

I would like to draw attention to an organisation in my constituency - Kare - which was established as far back as 1967. It started by dealing with children with an intellectual disability. Very often it stepped into the breach where there was not a public service. It is a front-line service provider, it has expanded its services over the years to provide critical services across a range of different areas, such as clinical care, day and residential care, and it has received awards for excellence. However, according to the chairperson, it is increasingly difficult for it to try to maintain its front-line services as each year, there have been cuts. I think this could be replicated around the country.

If we do not have those front-line services, it will cost us at some point. We have a very short-term approach to counting costs. They will arise later in terms of residential care or something else. This really needs to be looked at a more holistic way across the various Departments. I do not know if the Minister of State knew these supports would be lost. Was she even consulted about it? I would have thought that would have been critical in terms of the delivery of a broad range of advocacy and support services through those organisations which, in turn, can generate quite a lot of voluntary activity. The Minister of State might say whether she was consulted in her contribution. If she was not consulted, will she give a commitment to talk to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, who is a member of her party, with a view to reversing those cuts because it is not a question of appealing them as they should not have happened in the first place?

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