Uncertainty about the strike is causing widespread anxiety among parents and families, says Padraig Yeates, Industry and Employment Correspondent
"People are phoning in on the hour to find out if the strike is on," the chief executive of the National Federation for People with Mental Handicap, Mr Brian O'Donnell, said last night.
"The dispute is causing a lot of angst and anxiety, and a lot of people are hoping there will be at least a deferment."
There is no definitive total on the number of people who will be affected if the strike over pay for house parents and other carers in the intellectual disability sector goes ahead. The numbers run into hundreds.
The largest organisation affected in Dublin is St Michael's House. It has 1,500 service users of whom 400 are in residential care. Mr O'Donnell says only 80 of these will be able to go home. The rest will have to stay in residential centres.
As in most residential settings, there at nursing staff at St Michael's but they will not be able to cope indefinitely.
At day centres families will have their lives severely disrupted by the dispute. In many cases people with intellectual disabilities are left at centres by parents or siblings on their way to work. Mr O'Donnell says many parents are taking holiday leave to look after children. Cover is negotiated at local level between strike committees and management.
A member of an IMPACT strike committee in the greater Dublin area said that service users in his centre were divided into those who had to remain in residential care, those who could go home for a couple of nights and those who could be released for longer periods. He estimated that a third of clients fell into the first category.
The most difficult group for older parents were often those who posed "challenging behaviour" problems. In some cases he thought the strike committee would have to begin providing emergency cover within two to three days, especially as nurses comprise less than half the staff.
Centres affected by the dispute include: St John of God, Dublin, Louth, Kildare and Kerry; St Michael's House, Dublin; Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, Dublin; Stewart's Hospital, Dublin; Cheeverstown House, Dublin; Brothers of Charity, Waterford, Cork, Clare, Limerick, Galway and Roscommon;
Galway County Association for Mentally Handicapped Children; Western Care, Mayo; Co Wicklow Association for the Mentally Handicapped; Daughters of Charity, Lisnagry Co Limerick; Moyregan House autistic residential unit, Athboy; St Raphael's Hospital, Youghal, Co Cork; and COPE Foundation, Cork.