About 150 people gathered in the rain outside the Mansion House in Dublin yesterday to protest against the lack of Government provision for the disabled.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was greeted with angry chants of "we want our dignity" as he emerged from the launch of the European Year of People With Disabilities.
Protesters carrying placards said they were also furious about recent revelations in The Irish Times that mentally and physically disabled patients in St Mary's, Drumcar, Co Louth, were being locked up and held in straitjackets.
Mr John Ryan, a father of two autistic boys, travelled from Limerick to make his protest and invite the Taoiseach to live with him for a week to observe life as the parent of disabled children.
"He has a brass neck coming here in the name of people with disabilities," he said. "In the last 10 years, a boom period for the country, we still have waiting lists, we still have no residential care and this year no funding was given for new services. It is appalling, he is a hypocrite."
Many present expressed anger that their sons and daughters who were leaving school had no place to go. Some had received letters from service-providers advising that due to lack of funding there was no guarantee of places next September.
Ms Fionnuala Garrahy from Co Westmeath, a parent of a young man with an intellectual disability, said she believed the Government cared more about special savers than they did about special children. "As parents we don't live in peace and when we die, we don't die in peace because there is no proper provision being made for our children," she said.
Mr John O'Mahony from Co Cork said the Government was more interested in talking about building stadiums and buying private jets than it was about looking after the vulnerable in society.
Mr Ahern referred to the protest as "a small crowd" made up of four organisations and said the ceremony inside had been attended by representatives of 500 disability groups.
"We made so much progress between 1998 and 2001 when we had the resources that people would like us to keep going at that level and I wish we could," he said, referring to the reduced allocation of €13.3 million for existing services in the 2003 Budget, "but we feel satisfied in maintaining the allocation . . . as soon as things improve, you up it again and that is what we are going to try to do."
The protest was led by the National Association for Mentally Handicapped in Ireland and included the National Parents and Siblings Alliance, the Irish Autistic Alliance and the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies.
At a press conference yesterday, Ms Deirdre Carroll of the national association insisted her organisation did not wish to detract from the "admirable aims" of the European Year of People With Disabilities. However, she said about €20 million was needed to make up for the lack of residential and day places as well as respite care services which had developed as a result of Government cuts.
Elaine Keogh adds: The North Eastern Health Board and the management of St John of God's hospital in Drumcar are to meet with the Department of Health next month to discuss funding and delivery of service issues.
The NEHB said it had a contract with the order to deliver health services in St Mary's Hospital but the issue of funding remained with the Department of Health.
Louth senator Mr Fergus O'Dowd asked the health board if it had a statutory involvement in the hospital, which hit the headlines this week because of the impact on patients, many with severe intellectual disabilities, of staff shortages.
He was told it only had an agreement which detailed the kind of services to be provided for patients by St John of God's and it worked on the development of those services.