UP TO 7,000 intellectually disabled adults are at risk of abuse because there are no independent inspections of the care homes they live in, disability groups warned yesterday.

By Caroline O’Doherty

THE head of a Dominican church has apologised to an intellectually disabled young man who was told to leave Mass because he was making too much noise.

SERVICES for people with intellectual disabilities have hit crisis point, it was claimed yesterday.

HEALTH service providers have a responsibility to put in place a long-term care plan for disabled people to spare elderly parents the “terrifying prospect” that there will be no place for them to go, it was claimed yesterday.

RADICAL law reforms are needed to ensure intellectually disabled people have more control over decisions in their lives, Justice Minister Michael McDowell told a conference in Dublin over the weekend.

The National Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities (NAMHI) is calling on the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to change the law on legal capacity.

MORE THAN 300 people with intellectual disabilities are still in psychiatric institutions even though the Department of Health admits they should not be there.

THE long-awaited and controversial Disability Bill will finally be published tomorrow after a delay of close to three years.

GOVERNMENT plans to sell lands belonging to the State’s psychiatric institutions to fund mental health care were met with scepticism yesterday.

DISABILITY groups last night described the Government's continued deferral of the long-awaited Disability Bill as a joke.

PEOPLE with intellectual disabilities are still being discriminated against in areas of education, employment and housing and are rarely considered as citizens with a right to vote, the National Association for Mentally Handicapped of Ireland (NAMHI) said yesterday.

A pressure group representing the mentally handicapped has claimed that people with intellectual disabilities are widely discriminated against in the areas of jobs, housing and education.

FAMILIES and carers looking after more than 3,500 people with intellectual disabilities have called for Government action to provide long-awaited residential, respite and day services.

PEOPLE with intellectual disability have been traditionally excluded from personal decision-making and seek a voice when it comes to where they live, work and socialise, a seminar in Dublin heard yesterday.

THE Government must change the law to allow parents of children with intellectual disabilities make decisions on their behalf, the National Association for People with Intellectual Disability (NAMHI) has said.

People with an intellectual disability do not have clear rights to make decisions, according to Deirdre Carroll of 'Namhi', the association which represents those with intellectual disabilities.

AN additional 25 million for the disability sector will not address core funding problems, forcing many voluntary organisations into further debt, disability groups have claimed.

FORMER Minister for Children Mary Hanafin has infuriated parents, teachers and school managers by claiming that the rise in application for special needs assistants in classrooms may be a sign that the system may have gone “out of control.”

MINISTER for Education Noel Dempsey yesterday defended his track record on special needs education as parents protested about cutbacks.

Political Reporter

FUNDING for university buildings to train extra workers for the health sector will no longer be a priority as third-level institutions continue to be hit by cutbacks.

The National Association for Mentally Handicapped says it is concerned that funding of services for the intellectually disabled will be scaled down next year once they are no longer under the spotlight.

THE Taoiseach wants a Disability Ombudsman appointed but would not commit yesterday to giving the new authority legal teeth to pursue rights in the courts.

AIDAN DOWNEY is preparing for the biggest day of his life when he will represent his country at the Special Olympics World Games on Saturday.

DISABILITY campaigners yesterday accused the Government of widespread and indiscriminate cuts to vital services.

TO the average teenager, turning 18 signifies independence, privileges, new beginnings and fresh opportunities. For Shane O’Sullivan, it signals the end of all that.

By Caroline O'Doherty

THE Government today faces mounting criticism over its failure to reform disability services, as campaigners converge on Leinster House in protest at government cuts in the sector.

THE main opposition parties have given their support to a protest outside Leinster House tomorrow by disability groups.

DISABILITY groups protested last night in the room where the first Dáil affirmed the “equal right and equal opportunity” of every citizen.

SEVERE cutbacks in disability services are wiping out respite and emergency residential care places, forcing parents to place handicapped children in psychiatric hospitals.

I WISH to highlight for your readers the apparent lack of concern which the Government is currently displaying with regard to the needs of the intellectually disabled people.

THE introduction of quality standards for disability services was long overdue, a lobby group for people with disabilities said yesterday.

DISABILITY groups yesterday called on the Government to provide an extra €20 million in emergency funding to tackle the growing crisis in services for the mentally handicapped.

GROUPS representing the mentally handicapped are to stage a protest outside Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's launch of the European Year of the Disabled tomorrow over cutbacks in services.

GOVERNMENT cutbacks hit a new low yesterday as it emerged that services and money for the mentally handicapped will be severely cut next year.

NAMHI, an organisation representing those with intellectual disabilities is criticising the Budget's ability to cater for their needs.

HEALTH chiefs have claimed that the Health Strategy is dead in the water following the Budget decision to cap recruitment to the public services.

A COMMITTEE dedicated to monitoring Government activities in relation to the disabled has been set up by Fine Gael.

THE head of services at a Dublin special-needs school, where nurses and teachers are engaged in a power struggle, has urged the Government to draw up protocols to prevent similar disputes elsewhere.

THE health care needs of severely mentally handicapped children are being neglected because of an over-emphasis on education, their parents have claimed.

PARENTS of hundreds of severely disabled children struggling to meet care costs are to have their Government aid reduced in the latest Department of Health cutbacks.