15 October 2009

Irish Independent

HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) chief Brendan Drumm's €70,000 bonus was yesterday slated by an organisation representing children with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Ireland chief executive Deirdre Carroll said the payment was inappropriate at a time when budgets were being slashed. "It is not a huge amount of money in the scheme of things, but times have changed," she said.

Ms Carroll was speaking as five major agencies representing people with an intellectual disability and autism made a joint plea for services not to be slashed in the Budget.

The groups also revealed that it would be 16 months before there were any independent inspections of state-funded residential services for vulnerable children with an intellectual disability.

That is despite the Ryan report on institutional abuse making the setting up of an inspection system for these facilities a key recommendation. Promises to introduce similar protections for adults with an intellectual disability in residential care this year have been stalled.

Ms Carroll described the lack of outside inspections as a disgrace and said relatives who had concerns about care in some of these facilities had been forced to go to her with their concerns.

"I have received many complaints from people and the only formal procedure open is to make a complaint to the HSE. Nothing beats the importance of independent, accountable inspections," she said.

The groups -- which also included Down Syndrome Ireland, Irish Autism Action and the National Parents and Siblings Alliance -- warned their ability to respond to emergencies would be threatened if any more cuts were imposed. There are about 2,000 people with an intellectual disability waiting for a residential place and the growing numbers of the group who are living longer need to be catered for properly.

Seamus Greene of the National Parents and Siblings Alliance said that, despite the good will of many schools towards special needs pupils, many principals had little understanding of the issue.

"How can they allocate a special needs assistant or special needs teachers if they don't understand what work is required?" he asked.

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