Call for standards in services for disabled

IT is “disgraceful, immoral and outrageous” that there are no inspections of any residential services for people with an intellectual disability, the chairperson of Inclusion Ireland has said.

Speaking at the 50th annual conference of Inclusion Ireland, Frieda Finlay said although standards existed, she had been told by a civil servant that they will never be implemented on a statutory basis because there are “too many people living in sub-human conditions” and it would cost too much.

Ms Finlay, wife of Fergus Finlay, said even organisations that are very modern in their funding and brochures can have institutionalised habits and practices.