FAMILIES OF those with an intellectual disability have urged the Government to give an immediate guarantee that cuts made to respite services in recent weeks will be reversed.
The Hope 4 Disability Galway campaign group said yesterday that while assurances were given last week that there would be no further cuts in funding to voluntary groups providing respite services this year, they now want to see services that have already been cut reinstated.
A respite centre in Co Limerick run by the Brothers of Charity closed three weeks ago, while respite services have also been cut at a Daughters of Charity facility on the Navan Road in Dublin.
In a statement, Hope 4 Disability Galway said confusion and uncertainty still reign as to what the Government and the HSE have committed to following meetings last week after street protests over cuts to respite care in Galway, Dublin and Mayo.
"The Taoiseach, Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney, and the Minister of State with Responsibility for Disability, John Moloney, all stated that frontline services, in particular respite, would not be cut as a result of the budgetary cuts that have been imposed on the service providers in the sector. They failed, however, to deal with the existing cuts to services that have seen respite centres close, community homes consolidated [ people forced to move from their home to more crowded accommodation] and day services curtailed."
Neither Ms Harney nor Mr Maloney were commenting last night but they have previously indicated they believe there is no need for cuts to frontline services and that savings can be made elsewhere in voluntary organisations.
Mr Maloney cited the fact that the Brothers of Charity had a number of different chief executives in different locations, and Ms Harney expressed surprise at the size of some of the salaries paid to people in such posts.
But Walter Freyne, chief executive of the Daughters of Charity, said salary scales for senior management - between €93,000 and €113,000 - were agreed with the Department of Health.