Brothers aiming to relocate disabled people at new facility

THE Brothers of Charity are planning a multi-million euro project to relocate people with disabilities into the community.

The project — which aims to place 70-plus people into more integrated living and working environments in Co Cork — is hoped to be completed by 2012.

The organisation is looking at a number of sites in the county and has appealed for landowners and builders to help them achieve their goal of providing community-based homes.

Una Nagle, chief executive of the Brothers of Charity Service in Cork and Kerry, said that they currently care for 110 people at Lota and Upton.

While around 40 of the current residents are described as elderly, the remainder are mostly in their 20s and 30s.

Around 25 are to be placed in community settings in the short-term and it is hoped to house a further 45 by around 2012.

Ms Nagle said discussions were continuing with the Health Service Executive (HSE South) in relation to funding. “Our plan is toafford people the opportunity to move into the community and not have them segregated,” she said.

Ireland, she further suggested, was a much more inclusive country now than it was when the Brothers of Charity opened up their facility at Lota in 1938.

“We need to progress and build a lot more facilities outside,” said Ms Nagle.

Meanwhile, the organisation expressed thanks to Cork Lions Club which is organising an auction to purchase a community services ambulance, with wheelchair lift, to aid the charity. The auction will take place at the Ambassador Hotel on April 26 at 7.45pm.

Organiser Simon Stokes said that more than 100 lots would be auctioned and included Premiership soccer packages, weekends away, paintings and a signed Munster rugby shirt.