The chief executive of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, Mr Desmond Kenny, has claimed "blind and partially sighted people are among the forgotten people in Ireland".
The council's pre-budget submission urges the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to redress this imbalance in the Budget by making a number of changes in the allowances for the State's 7,000 blind people.
It wants the blind persons' tax-free allowance increased from £3,000 to £3,500 for a single person and from £6,000 to £7,000 for married couples.
In addition, it suggests the Blind Persons' Pension should be paid regardless of the recipient's means to take into account the higher than average living costs of people with disabilities. It recommends the means test be phased out over five years.
It also wants the phone charges of blind persons subsidised, a percentage of the mobility allowance currently available to those with physical disabilities to be extended to blind and visually impaired persons, and calls for funding to establish a new National Service and Media Centre for the visually impaired, at a cost of £2.9 million.
Mr Kenny said funding of services for those with visual impairments and other sensory disabilities lags considerably behind those with intellectual or physical disabilities.
"Most talk about people with physical and sensory needs really means those with visible 'physical needs'. We just ask to be considered equally."
He said the NCBI is impatient to see service improvements made not only in the arrangements for funding services, but in statutory payment schemes upon which blind and visually impaired people rely.
He added that all the recommendations in the submission are framed around core statutory provisions.
While 7,000 people are registered as blind in the State, Mr Kenny said anything from a further 5,000 to 48,000 people probably put up with "the reduced quality of life attending upon significant sight loss".