After years of underpaying workers with intellectual disabilities, the role of sheltered workshops is being called into question, reports Kitty Holland
At the end of his working week at a furniture-making workshop in Co Galway, Ruairí O'Toole (31) "does not have the price of a second pint". The Connemara-based man is paid just over €3 a day at the Snipe Industries sheltered furniture factory in which he works two days a week. The quality of the workmanship, says his father Paddy, is "very good".
"Oh he is really good. They make headboards and bedside tables and that sort of thing. There are qualified joiners and upholsterers there to supervise and we've bought some of the things out of the place. It's good quality. Well, he gets €7 for a two-day week."
Ruairí also works three days a week in his local Tesco branch, where he stocks shelves and cleans. There, he gets the going rate of €14 an hour. "And he just loves going in there. He just loves being out and about and with people."
Ability West Ltd, a disability service provider which runs Snipe Industries, also helped Ruairí get his job at Tesco. O'Toole is very thankful his son has this work and describes those in charge at Snipe Industries as "very good to Ruairí".
"They are very good to him and I have no complaints with them. Their hands are tied. It's the people higher up who I think are wrong."
Asked whether Ruairí is aware of how badly paid he is at Snipe, O'Toole says: "Well, he knows he's not getting the price of a second pint on a Friday evening."
O'Toole spoke to The Irish Times following reports earlier this week of investigations by the Health Service Executive and the Equality Authority into the alleged exploitation of people with intellectual disabilities in sheltered workshops.
This newspaper outlined how more than 4,000 people were working in sheltered workshops throughout the State, performing such work as shrink-wrapping two-for-one offers for supermarkets and inserting leaflets in mail-shots. People working in these workshops are being paid as little as €15 per week and in some instances nothing at all.
Ruairí has Down syndrome and is "very, very able", says O'Toole. "He mows our lawn here immaculately and does jobs around the house. He cycles everywhere around on his own. I'd say he's one of the best-known people in south Connemara."
Asked had he ever complained to Ability West, he says: "Have you ever heard of the term 'not rocking the boat'? I'd be afraid they'd take the Tesco job off him and that would kill him.
"But I've been thinking about this for a long time now and how wrong the pay is. I am sure there are hundreds of parents and siblings of people in these workshops all over Ireland who feel as strongly as I do. When I saw the reports about the investigations I just thought, 'I'm going to say something'. Thank God now it's getting some attention."
Breda Crehan Roche, chief executive of Ability West, said she could not comment on an individual case but insisted that the activities being performed by Ruairí O'Toole were "not work".
"The people there are receiving a service. There are all sorts of other activities - swimming, bowling, outings, a whole menu of activities," she said, again insisting the activities in Snipe Industries were "therapeutic".
O'Toole said his son did enjoy swimming and bowling but had never been offered any such activity by Ability West. And herein lies the nub of the argument over sheltered workshops: can what goes on in them be regarded as "therapeutic"?
When they emerged in the 1950s, there is no doubt they were regarded as revolutionary - giving some meaningful activity to a section of the population that until then was often left in institutions with nothing to do. Most were not profitable and the activities in them were largely optional.
MANY WORKSHOPS, HOWEVER, gained contracts from companies as diverse as catering, paper manufacturers, distillers and detergent manufacturers. The work had to meet deadlines and quality standards. "Workers" had to turn up on time and were reprimanded if work wasn't up to scratch.
"Service users" began to look more like employees and their monotonous, drudgerous work less like therapy.
Some involved in overseeing them grew increasingly uncomfortable.
O'Toole was just one of numerous parents and professionals who contacted The Irish Times in the wake of the reports this week.
Brian McDonnell, a staff nurse at St Davnet's Hospital in Monaghan told of "one lady . . . working in the kitchen who is being paid nothing." He said he had publicly complained in the past to no avail. A HSE spokeswoman said the "small duties" being carried out by a "small number" of patients were being phased out.
Tommy Morris, a former medical social worker in Peamount Hospital (which ran a sheltered workshop until last November, paying its workers between €5 and €15 a week) raised his concerns - to no avail. Peamount denied he had raised issues with management.
Others, however, while regarding them as highly questionable, warn against a rush to eradicate sheltered workshops overnight.
Clíona Ní Chualáin, acting chief executive of Inclusion Ireland, the advocacy organisation for people with intellectual disabilities, says it's important "meaningful" alternatives are in place first.
She welcomes the current review of adult day-services being chaired by the HSE, but warns there should not be a "quick-fix". Eradication of workshops too quickly would be a disservice to many of their "workers".
One man to whom The Irish Times spoke personifies a situation she says any review must protect against. "Sam" (46) worked in a sheltered workshop, and when it closed late last year, no alternatives were in place.
Though now doing "voluntary" work - Sam would like to be paid - as a ward assistant in the hospital where he lives on-campus, many with him in the workshop now "do nothing all day but walk the corridors and watch TV", he said.
NÍ CHUALÁIN ALSO stresses that in the rush away from sheltered workshops it should not be assumed that the "best" alternative for people is supported employment in the open labour market. Some, for whatever reason, may not want this but want other activities.
She warns schemes operated by Fás, such as the Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS) which offers financial supports to employers who recruit people with disabilities, and the Supported Employment Scheme, which sees a "job-coach" help people with writing CVs and settling into jobs, may not be right for everyone.
In any case, the tiny numbers of people with intellectual disabilities on these schemes - 150 on the WSS and about 900 in supported employment out of a population of 25,000 - suggest the most significant obstacle to this group getting into the mainstream work environment is society's - and so employers' - attitude to intellectual disability.
However, those with intellectual disabilities interviewed this week, working in retailing, chemical-resistant garment manufacturing, broadcasting and office work, belie any notion that these are not extremely able people. As one large employer of people with disabilities put it: "We find those we employ on [ the WSS] super-dedicated, perfectionists in their work and very efficient."
The review may lead to welcome recommendations but many are impatient.
Mary Raftery, in her Thursday column in this paper, said: "For at least the past decade, the exploitation of these individuals has been repeatedly highlighted. What has transpired as a result can best be described as a hierarchy of betrayal." She goes on to reprimand a series of groups for failing to shout loudly enough.
Angela Kerins, chief executive of the Rehab group, said there was no need for "yet another review" and called on the Department of Health to implement immediately its own draft Code of Practice for Sheltered Occupational Services, drawn up in 2002.
Written in consultation with much the same stakeholders as are now involved in the HSE review, it addresses such issues as wages, entitlements and complaints procedures, and says from the outset, "service providers must, as a priority, focus on each individual's needs and capacities".
There would be clear cost implications for the service providers, the Department of Health, the Department of Enterprise and local authorities if it were implemented. When asked why the Code had not been implemented, a spokeswoman from the Department of Health declined to address this issue. She said it was "a useful document which provides a template for future action". The review group would "take the Code into consideration during the course of its work", she added.
In the meantime, another review is underway, and investigations are being carried out by both the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission.
Ruairí O'Toole continues to make furniture for €7 a week but loves his work in Tesco, while an elderly parent accepts sadly the situation of his "good boy" for fear of "rocking the boat".