THE BROTHERS of Charity have confirmed they are “seriously struggling” to provide basic services for people with disabilities in the west due to more severe Government funding cuts than were anticipated.
The cuts of up to 3.5 per cent are “shockingly regressive”, coming just months after an Irish Human Rights Commission report recommended radical change, a parents’ representative group has pointed out.
Speaking before its agm in Galway last night, Brothers of Charity acting chief executive Anne Geraghty confirmed the service was trying to plan for a budgetary shortfall this year of €2.5 million, on top of a cut of €1.8 million last year.
All six Brothers of Charity regions in the State have experienced a 2.5 per cent reduction in Health Service Executive (HSE) allocations, but a moratorium on funding new posts had “not been anticipated”, Ms Geraghty said.
“If this continues next year, we will have nothing left to fall back on – an appalling vista,” she said. The staff moratorium varies in impact from region to region.
In Galway, the charity’s board has fallen back on reserves to try and keep key services such as respite care in place this year. “However, there is no guarantee we can provide respite from next year, which will place a huge strain on families,” she said.
Eamon Walsh, a non-executive director of the Brothers of Charity, said the cuts were “indiscriminate” and could set the service back 10 years. “Ninety per cent of the staff are frontline, and the service has improved dramatically in the past decade,” he said.
The Brothers of Charity Service was last year awarded the Council on Quality and Leadership Accreditation by a long-established international accreditation body.
“The Government made a commitment in the last budget to ringfence disability services, but HSE-imposed cuts mean the Government is cutting indirectly,” Mr Walsh said.
The Brothers wrote to families of up to 1,000 clients in the Galway area late last week to outline the seriousness of the issue. Two community houses would have to be closed, three multidisciplinary posts cut, and day services charged for and reduced for some individuals, the letter said.
“For the remainder of 2010, we will try to hold the current respite levels on a risk-funded, month-to-month basis,” it stated. If cuts of at least 1.5 per cent are imposed next year, respite will have to be cut by at least 45 per cent, it said.
Frank Conaty, chair of the National Parents and Siblings Alliance, said the news was “shocking” and “regressive” and would place enormous strain on families – some of whom were getting very little respite as it was.
“The Irish Human Rights Commission report on the John Paul Centre run by the Brothers of Charity made a number of criticisms and recommendations, including the need to take a person-centred approach,” Mr Conaty said. “How can such changes be made when funding support is undermined in this way?”
There appeared to be a willingness to take a person-centred approach to disability within the Department of Health and Children, he added. “But there is such a gulf between the rhetoric, and what is happening on the ground. It is always the silent minority that gets squeezed, and it is unconscionable that this should be tolerated.”