Budget plea by disability sector

FIVE disability organisations came together in Dublin yesterday to demand that people with an intellectual disability do not bear the brunt of budget cuts next week.

Seamus Greene, director of the National Parents and Siblings Alliance, said: “This is a bad time for the economy and, unfortunately, when times get bad for the country, times get even worse for the disability sector,” said Seamus Greene, director of the National Parents and Siblings Alliance.

Mr Greene, whose organisation was joined by Inclusion Ireland, the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies, the National Parents and Siblings Alliance, Irish Autism Action and Down Syndrome Ireland, said the situation for people with an intellectual disability was already dire.

In an open letter to the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, Mr Greene asked why was it that people with disabilities did badly when times were good and even worse when they were bad.

“You know why,” Mr Greene, wrote. “It is because people with disability and their families are seen as objects of charity.”

Despite the lip service many people paid to the concept of equality, people with disability were not really seen as equal citizens.

Inclusion Ireland chief executive Deirdre Carroll, said that, at a minimum, funding for people with an intellectual disability must continue at present levels.