Disability fund will meet demand, claims department

THE Department of Education says a 20% cut to a fund for students with disabilities will leave enough money to meet demand, just three months after telling another department it could seriously affect numbers taking up college places.

A group promoting college access for disabled students has warned that the €2.8 million cut from the fund for students with disabilities (FSD) will reverse the progress made in recent years.

The €13.7m fund supported about 6,000 students in the past year, up from 4,964 the previous academic year, enabling colleges to provide equipment, special materials, technology and transport for those with a range of disabilities and learning difficulties.

A department spokesperson said yesterday that the funding available for 2012 would be sufficient to meet demand, and the 20% cut reflected reduced drawdown from the fund.

“Greater integration of the supports to students with disabilities into the core activities of institutions has led to lesser dependence on supplementary funding through the FSD,” the department said.

It added that there is often lower take-up by students of accommodations agreed at the beginning of the academic year, and students accessing the fund in first year do not necessarily need to access it at the same level in subsequent years.

But the department’s submission to Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin’s comprehensive review of expenditure (CRE) in September tells a different story.

The document published on Tuesday identified the potential saving but said it would mean the allocation per student would have to be decreased, either across the board or using a weighted approach depending on each disability type.

“This potentially would have a serious impact on the number of students with disabilities taking up places in further and higher education and impact negatively on the progress made in this area,” officials wrote.

Asked how the position had changed, the department spokesperson said the CRE document was produced earlier in the year and the situation would have been examined more closely since then.

But the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) said people with disabilities remain grossly under-represented and, without the help of the fund to enable blind students to read or to provide interpreters for deaf people, students will not succeed.

“Thanks to these supports and their own hard work and effort, students have been gaining qualifications and going on to develop careers in occupations from finance to nursing. It is incomprehensible to understand how a Government committed to a modern, fair, socially inclusive and equal society could jeopardise such progress,” said AHEAD director Ann Heelan.