December 2010

 

International Day of People with a Disability 3rd December

– People with a Disability fear Tuesday’s Budget

 

People with a disability must be protected in next week’s Budget says Inclusion Ireland, as we approach International Day of People with a Disability.

International Day of People with a Disability will be celebrated Friday 3rd December. Inclusion Ireland says the Irish Government can best celebrate this important day and improve the lives of more than 26,000 people with an intellectual disability in Ireland by ensuring there are no further cuts to social welfare payments and no further erosion of services people with a disability receive. Inclusion Ireland outlines six key priorities for Budget 2011:

• No cuts in health and education frontline services to people with disabilities;

• No cuts in rates of social welfare payments or in supports to carers in 2011;

• To complete the programme to transfer people with an intellectual disability inappropriately placed in psychiatric hospitals or who are living in outdated congregated settings by 2016;

• The commencement of independent inspection of all residential services for adults with disabilities and the completion of national standards for children’s services, including those for children with disabilities;

• The promotion of innovative measures for providing supported living respite services and day services, including a commitment to implement the recommendations of the HSE review of adult day services for people with disabilities. The publication of the review of disability services under the value for money and policy review;

• Commencement of modern capacity legislation to include guidelines for professionals working with and supporting people with an intellectual disability;

Inclusion Ireland CEO Deirdre Carroll says tokenism is no longer an option:

“People with a disability and their families have already seen their frontline services cut back and a steady erosion of the National Disability Strategy. Government politicians have consistently said over past months that our most vulnerable, including people with a disability, remain a Government priority. Unfortunately there are no measures to protect people with a disability from the worst of this economic crisis – there is no Croke Park Agreement for people with a disability.”

ENDS

 

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