March 2009

 

"What if the Minister for Education had come into the Dáil and announced that the names of all primary school children were going into a hat and 534 children would not have a class for next year? There would be outrage and uproar. But with children with special needs its always ok to cut services…"

• Katherine O’Leary, Parent at Inclusion Ireland AGM

Parents have demanded that there are no further cuts to disability services when Disability Minister John Moloney spoke at Inclusion Ireland’s 2009 AGM in Monaghan, which finished today. Yesterday evening (Friday 27th March) and all day today, parents vented their anger and frustration at the possibility of cuts to an area that is already cut back to the bone. Minister Moloney said he knows there can be no further cuts and he will be making representations to this effect.

Inclusion Ireland CEO Deirdre Carroll today said:

"It is essential that in these difficult times we keep to the forefront our vision for people with intellectual disabilities that they are not isolated or segregated, have their voices heard, and can lead independent and healthy lives."

Parents today echoed that view and said they will fight any cuts.

ENDS

Extract from Deirdre Carroll’s CEO Report to AGM of Inclusion Ireland Monaghan – Saturday, 28th March 2009

Last year in Tullamore, we left AGM somewhat reassured by what we heard from the then Taoiseach-elect Brian Cowen and the politicians from all the political parties who spoke at our Q&A session on the Friday night. We were aware that the economic climate was changing, but were of the view that if we planned carefully and managed our costs we would be well positioned to keep new developments on track and maintain the services we had.

This year in Monaghan we are in uncharted waters. Last week in the Irish Times, Dan O’ Brien, a senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit wrote "It is difficult now to overstate the magnitude of the crisis in Ireland’s public finances". To paraphrase the old song "What a difference a day makes", what a difference a year makes.

It is essential that in these difficult times we keep to the forefront our vision for people with intellectual disabilities that they are not isolated or segregated, have their voices heard, and can lead independent and healthy lives. Inclusion Ireland has a proud history of campaigning for people with intellectual disabilities.

People like Annie Ryan, Mary Rawlins and Barbara Stokes, were tireless in their efforts to ensure that the rights of people with a disability were placed on the political agenda, and after the gains in recent years we cannot sit back and see this work overturned by ill-conceived cuts for short-term savings, which as we all know, will cost in the long run.

ENDS

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