Bid to boost employment rate for disabled

EFFORTS are to be made to bring an extra 7,000 workers with disabilities into employment by 2010, but that still means close to two-thirds of people with disabilities will remain outside the workforce.

The longer-term target is to raise the employment rate of people with disabilities from the level of 37% to 45% by 2016, and to ensure at least a further 5% are in full-time education or training - but that too will leave 50% without a paid job.

A fund of €260 million is to be made available under the National Development Plan (NDP) for the Education Disabilities Support Programme to help find a path to employment for people with disabilities.

Of that, €59m will provide grants for students in third-level education to pay for special equipment, technological aids, transport services, personal assistants, sign language assistants and other supports.

In total, the NDP allocates €19.2bn to people with disabilities, the single biggest area of expenditure being health services which account for €18.8bn.

Services for people with mental illness are included in this category.

Priorities include greater provision of community- based residential and respite services, more day care centres, and the re-homing of people in inappropriate settings such as psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes into residential accommodation appropriate to their needs.

Enhanced funding for aids and appliances, including assistive technology, is prom-ised as well as improved psychiatric services for children and teenagers, and specialist facilities for people with intellectual disability combined with behavioural problems.

Local authorities are to be able to tap into a €164m fund for adapting public buildings such as council offices, courthouses and civil legal aid centres to ensure they are accessible to people with disabilities.

A €9.7bn fund has also been allocated to supports for older people, including €4.7bn for “Living at Home” initiatives to include more home helps and home care packages that provide nursing, therapeutic and practical assistance to allow more people live independently in their own homes for longer.

The remaining €5bn will be spent on residential care to include long-term nursing home accommodation as well as short-term convalescent and respite care.

A network of Community Units is promised, each with 50 beds, to provide a mix of care options for older people in their own communities.

Age Action welcomed the measures but warned that allocating funds was only a start.

“The financial commitment outlined in the plan is just part of the solution,” said head of advocacy, Eamon Timmons.

“For example, who is going to provide the increased services in older people’s homes, what will be the standards for such services and how will the workers be trained?”