For the disability sector the Budget represented an important first step, writes Angela Kerins.
December 1st, 2004, was a day when the needs of people with disabilities and their families were significantly recognised. The multi-annual funding package announced in last Wednesday's Budget represents the fourth and final piece in the National Disability Strategy jigsaw. Some €900 million additional funding will be provided for services to people with disabilities over the next five years, and the sector welcomes this commitment to services that have previously drawn the short straw.
For the first time, the needs of people with disabilities, their families and carers have been recognised in the significant allocation of Government resources. This funding represents a long-sought commitment to disability services.
The challenge now is to ensure the resources are distributed fairly and cost-effectively, and directed to meet the real needs of people with disabilities throughout Ireland. This is especially relevant in the context of the Disability Bill, the six Government Departments' sectoral plans and the Comhairle Amendment Bill, which together with this multiannual funding package, form the National Disability Strategy.
The next five years will see €600 million in revenue funding and €300 million in capital funding made available to disability services. The Government is also on target to fulfil its commitments under Sustaining Progress in relation to social welfare benefits, with a €14 per week increase in disability allowance this year.
Other income-related measures affecting people with disabilities and their carers include an increase in respite care grant to €1,000 a year and a rise in the threshold for receipt of carer's allowance.
These measures are welcomed and acknowledged. However, the context for these changes and their necessity must also be understood. The Minister for Finance himself admitted that disability programmes have traditionally been at the back of the queue for resources. This has had a number of consequences historically, which must now be addressed in a way that ensures real improvements in the lives of people with disabilities.
The move to multiannual granting of funding for disability services over five years allows for effective planning, the lack of which has negatively impacted on service provision over many decades. Piecemeal funding and a lack of assurance as to whether a particular service will exist the following year has inhibited service development and caused huge uncertainty and frustration to people with disabilities and their families in the past.
Proper planning to ensure that services meet identified needs must be undertaken. Careful management of the new funding is required to ensure that high quality and relevant services of choice are available to people with disabilities. In this regard the National Disability Authority would like to see funding allocated for the implementation of the National Standards for Disability Services.
The need to develop capacity within the sector should not be underestimated. The new services will mean a need for increased numbers of trained, professional staff. Significant attention should be turned to attracting experienced, high-quality staff into the sector and the training of many more.
This is especially true in the fields of occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy, where traditionally Ireland has produced a low number of graduates annually. Therefore significant attention will need to be given to manpower planning and the provision of adequate third-level places to provide for demand.
Great strides can be taken in the next five years in the provision of services to people with disabilities, but this should be considered in the context of the current level of unmet need. For intellectual disability alone an additional 1,290 residential places, 430 respite places and 2,540 day places will be made available. This will go a long way to solving the current shortage of such services, but will not entirely fulfil the already identified need.
For example, the National Intellectual Disability Database Report 2003 found that 1,700 residential places are required to meet identified need. It is stated that 255 of the projected new places will be provided in 2005. That provision is welcomed, but we shouldn't forget the very human nature of the provision of disability services. The remaining shortfall in service provision will continue to affect the lives of people with disabilities living in unsuitable accommodation, or with ageing parents.
The NDA is particularly delighted to see the extra funding provided for the needs of those living in inappropriate accommodation, mostly in psychiatric institutions, and would like to see this front loaded to ensure that this need is met as an urgent priority.
Many within the disability sector had withheld final judgment on the strategy until after the budgetary announcements. The provisions within Budget 2005 confirm the Government's commitment to the National Disability Strategy.
However, this funding will not remove the disability sector's reservations with regard to the Disability Bill. Many of these issues will still require addressing in the amendment stages of the Disability Bill.
The Government is to be commended for its commitment to make major inroads into dealing with problems within the disability sector. The funding commitments made by the Minister for Finance must be accompanied by a commitment to effective, efficient distribution to take advantage of this significant opportunity to improve the choices and level of disability services available to the 400,000 people with disabilities living in Ireland, and that is the challenge for all of us involved.
Angela Kerins is chairwoman of the National Disability Authority