Howlin challenged on pay increases as services are cut

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin has been strongly challenged by angry parents on the issue of paying increments while frontline services are being cut at a conference yesterday.

Parents of people with disabilities spoke out at Inclusion Ireland’s annual conference in Wexford, questioning how salary increases could be justified when frontline services were being cut.

Avril Webster from Limerick said services for her 14-year-old son were being cut, while 89% of services’ budget was spent on pay.

“This is about fairness and we have taken more than our fair share of cuts.

“We are told increments are part of the Croke Park agreement and cannot be touched, but frontline services are being cut and charges introduced.

“We now have to pay for respite services which have no standards, no regulations and no inspections. We the families are paying for the salary increases of staff.”

The minister, a speaker at the conference, said there was a “price to pay” for industrial peace. The deal had been done, increments were a part of it, and the “edifice could not be pulled down”.

Tom Healy, who is on the board of Inclusion Ireland, said a centre was being closed one day a week in Galway because of cuts. The minister said he wanted a “proper audit” of this, as he did not understand how efficiencies could not be achieved without closing one day a week.

Deirdre Carroll, outgoing chief executive of Inclusion Ireland, the national association for people with an intellectual disability, said it was her biggest regret that residential disability services for adults and children still are not inspected. “We are still waiting for inspections for more than 370 children and nearly 4,000 adults living in disability centres. It is unacceptable and you have to ask the question why is it taking so long?”