Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if work has begun on establishing a personal advocacy service for people with disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7982/07]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The introduction of a personal advocacy service is provided for in the Citizens Information Act, 2007.

The Act has as its primary purpose the amendment of the Comhairle Act, 2000, to assign additional and enhanced functions to the Citizens Information Board, formerly Comhairle, which operates under the aegis of my Department, to enable it to introduce a personal advocacy service to individuals, in particular those with a disability. The service will assist the individuals concerned in identifying and understanding their needs and options and assist them in securing their entitlements to social services. Social services are broadly defined and include health, social welfare, education, family support, housing, taxation, citizenship, consumer matters, employment and training, equality, asylum and immigration.

In order to expand advocacy provision for people with disabilities the Citizens Information Board, began a process in 2004 of engaging the community and voluntary sector in the provision of advocacy services to people with disabilities and also produced advocacy guidelines to inform and guide organizations in the development of advocacy services.

Thirty projects have been funded since 2004 to deliver representative advocacy services to people with disabilities, some of which are cross disability type, with others specifically targeting one particular type of disability. Each of the projects poses different challenges, some requiring more intensive work with smaller caseloads while others have larger caseloads with shorter periods of client contact.

It is difficult to estimate how many of the 323,000 people with disabilities in Ireland (CSO 2002) will seek an advocacy service. Demand will, to some extent, depend on public awareness of the services available, trust in the independence of advocates, and access to services. In this regard, the Citizen Information Board plan to undertake a public awareness campaign to address these issues.

The development of advocacy services remains a priority for my Department and in this regard additional funding of €1.9m has been provided for the Citizens Information Board in 2007 for the development of a personal advocacy service for people with disabilities and for the implementation of the Disability Sectoral Plan.

The Citizens Information Board has commenced work on establishing the Personal Advocacy Service. It is envisaged that the new service will be up and running in early 2008.