THOUSANDS OF people with intellectual disabilities and their families are expected to march on Leinster House tomorrow in protest over cuts to vital disability services.
Inclusion Ireland, the national association for people with an intellectual disability, says the march is aimed at ensuring the Government listens to the voice of service users.
The protest follows reports that at least 60 service providers caring for 25,000 people with Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities are scaling back their operations because of cuts in HSE funding.
“People with disabilities have been presented with cuts to essential services without prior consultation,” Inclusion Ireland’s chief executive Deirdre Carroll said. “The message will go out loud and clear at the gates of Leinster House tomorrow that this is not acceptable.”
People with disabilities and their families are due to meet at the Garden of Remembrance at noon. The march is scheduled to go down O’Connell Street towards Leinster House. Concurrent marches are planned in Galway and Castlebar.
The Government has countered that more than €1 billion is being spent on intellectual disabilities this year. A spokesman said Minister for Health Mary Harney and Minister of State for Disability John Moloney were working to see how frontline services could be safeguarded.
Ms Carroll said the National Disability Strategy had been gradually dismantled over the last two years. This was compounded by cuts to education and social welfare for people with disabilities.
“In real terms, this means key provisions of the strategy such as statutory entitlement to assessment of need for children of school-going age and adults, as well as individual education plans for children, are now on hold,” she said.
“We will not have an advocacy service on a statutory basis. Funding to implement the strategy was not ring-fenced, and we are now paying the cost.”
Ms Carroll added that, in the most recent budget, there were cutbacks to disability and carer’s allowances. “This is an attack on the direct living standards and the quality of life of people with disabilities. There can be no further cutback in budget 2011.”
