Government urged to provide €20m in emergency funding
They say cutbacks mean some disabled people will end up being admitted in to psychiatric hospitals because there are no suitable places left.
Deirdre Carroll of the National Association of the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland (NAMHI) said extra funding was needed urgently to ease the crisis.
“The Government is spending around €50m a month on the Special Savings Incentive Accounts, yet around €20m would provide place for emergency cases which will arise over the year,” she said.
The cases usually involve mentally handicapped people who are cared for at home by elderly parents but end up needing residential care when a family member dies.
The Budget failed to provide any new money for residential day or respite places, while funding for emergency cases was cut from €43m last year to €13m this year.
Ms Carroll said due to the lack of suitable residential places, mentally handicapped people will instead be admitted to nursing homes, respite places of even psychiatric hospital.
The practice of admitting mentally handicapped people into psychiatric institutions was supposed to have ended almost two decades ago but campaigners say it is still continuing.
Already this year one mentally handicapped person has been sent to St Ita’s psychiatric hospital in Portrane, Co Dublin, as a result of the cutbacks.
Around 100 protesters gathered outside the Mansion House at the launch of the European Year pf People with Disabilities. They included representatives from a range of disability groups, including the NAMHI, the National Parents and Siblings Alliance, the Irish Autism Alliance and the Federation of Voluntary Bodies.
Seamus Greene of the Irish Autism Alliance said they were no encouraging signs from the Taoiseach yesterday that extra funding would be forthcoming.
He warned that disability groups would expand their protests nationwide if the Government failed to respond to their calls.
“There are a new generation of parents of disabled children who have a lot of energy and willing to campaign and fight for their rights,” Mr Greene said.
