Disability groups are contemplating picketing Special Olympics events this summer if the Government does not meet funding commitments. Mr Frank Flannery, chairman of the Not For Profit Business Association, which has among its members at least 10 service-providers to the disabled, said yesterday that disability groups were significantly under-resourced.
At a meeting in Dublin, Mr Flannery said that of the €12 million promised by the Government for disability groups last year, only €5.9 million had been allocated, leaving a shortfall of €6.1 million. Those shortfalls affected 40,000 service-users and more than 4,000 staff throughout the State.
The degree of under-funding was causing "serious problems" and presented increasing risks, Mr Flannery said. "These include sustaining the existing levels of service, financial stability and health and safety. We are being under-resourced and this cannot be allowed to continue."
Mr Flannery was speaking after a meeting with the Minister of State, Mr Tim O'Malley. He said he had left the meeting "without any joy" and with little confidence that they would get the funding they needed. Mr O'Malley had informed him that "nothing can be done".
Although pickets on Special Olympics events would be undertaken with "extreme reluctance", he said, "if we cannot get progress through rational conversation, we will have to consider other methodologies".
Mr Shay Ryan, a programme assistant with the Irish Wheelchair Association, said it was "very important that the main groups affected came together to fight these issues". The Special Olympics would be an opportunity to put the serious funding shortfalls on the agenda.
"During these games," Mr Ryan said, "you are going to see Bertie \ in pictures with athletes. I don't see why there shouldn't be dignified protests.
"When the Olympics are over, Bertie is going to be off in his Government jet and we'll hear nothing more about disabled people's rights. Unless we put the pressure on, they are going to lie and lie and lie and we'll be back here next year with more heart-breaking stories."
Representatives from several of the affected organisations, including Enable Ireland, the National Council for the Blind and the Central Remedial Clinic, spoke of enormous problems in providing basic services and of their fears that they may have to cut these if the funding issue was not addressed.
