‘You feel you are being told you’re not welcome’

By Jennifer Hough
Saturday, July 18, 2009

IT is a sad day for people with disabilities in Ireland.

Martin Naughton, who suffers from a physical disability and works for the Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI), maintains if implemented, the McCarthy report signals a mammoth step back for people with disabilities.

"I am still trying to digest everything. If you look at the bare cut, €50m, it looks as though we got away lightly but when you take everything as a whole there are cuts all over the place."

Mr Naughton, who has his own home and a job but still requires full-time support, feels the proposals would undo years of hard work to integrate disabled people and treat them equally.

For him, the symbolic proposals hurt more than the monetary.

Under the board’s recommendations the office for Mental Health and Disability would be removed from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and placed under the remit of the Department of Health.

For Martin, this is the ultimate betrayal.

"The social model approach to disability for the past 10 years was that people with disabilities should be supported to live like everyone else."

One of its major underpinnings was that disability reform came through the Department of Justice, that was a huge and logical boost. It was a move away from being pitied and blamed. "Most people may not realise but disabled people are often very healthy," said Martin.

"I feel sorry for any parent who has a child with a disability today. It is a struggle and the more you fight the more frustrated you can become."

The DFI says it is concerned about a recommended cut of €50m in funding to voluntary disability organisations, the €60m reduction to the funding of special needs assistants and the 5% reduction in the rate of disability allowance.

Allen Dunne, head of the DFI says the cuts are of "immense" concern as funding for disability services has already been cut repeatedly over the past two years, a process which began before the current recession was evident.

"The harsh reality is that there are still substantial unmet needs, and people with disabilities are already very vulnerable. Therefore their capacity to survive repeated knocks is very limited," she said.

Similarly, Inclusion Ireland slammed the cutting of front-line disability services such as psychologists and special needs school transport.

On the ground, Martin knows the pain this will cause – even just the suggestion.

"If you are a parent with a child with a disability, and you hear about teachers being cut back, you just feel you are being told ‘you are not welcome here’. It is telling people with disability – find somewhere else to go. It is very hurtful."

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, July 18, 2009

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/you-feel-you-are-being-told-youre-not-welcome-96652.html#ixzz0Law2QiY3