OPINION:Cutbacks in education for intellectually disabled people mean many will end up in a variety of State institutions in later life costing the State more than was saved initially, writes DEIRDRE CARROLL
PARENTS OF people with an intellectual disability this weekend gave the Government a powerful message – we cannot take any further cuts. On Friday and Saturday, delegates gathered for Inclusion Ireland’s 2009 agm in Monaghan. This time
last year 300 delegates to agm 2008 gave a very warm welcome to then taoiseach-elect Brian Cowen in his home town of Tullamore where he promised to do his best for people with an intellectual disability.
Less than a year later delegates to the agm in Monaghan are now facing an uncertain future, fearful of the impact of the forthcoming budget on their children’s services. To paraphrase the old song “What a Difference a Year Makes”.
Parents are not only fearful that promised new services will never materialise, but that their existing services will be cut. Already we have had Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe targeting children with a mild learning disability in special schools by shutting down their classes. His unashamed defence of this move on the grounds that it fits in with Government policy of educating all children together has been rebutted by both parents and teachers alike.
In the week that this decision was made, the then chief executive of the Bank of Ireland Brian Goggin, was asked for his view on this plan to save €7 million of exchequer funding in light of the €7 billion given to shore up the banks.
Goggin had the audacity to state that one was an ongoing revenue cost to government and the other was a loan that will be paid back. There will be no savings in such cuts. Our experience is that many children with mild intellectual disabilities, denied the educational supports they need, end up unemployed, in prison or in an underfunded, understaffed psychiatric hospital.
Equally disturbing is the failure of the Government to publish the National Cares Strategy. This is a kick in the teeth to the thousands of unpaid carers in this country and their undocumented contribution to the Gross Domestic Product. There are also real fears that the carer’s allowance and respite care grant will be cut in the budget.
On Saturday, delegates at Inclusion Ireland’s agm heard from Niall Byrne, deputy social services inspector at the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) about its plans to introduce National Standards for Residential Services for People with Disabilities. Yet, earlier in the morning, the Minister for State at the Department of Health and Children, John Moloney, said there was no money to introduce these standards either in 2009 or 2010.
The failure to protect a very vulnerable group of people is yet again put down to cost. If we have learned anything over the last year, surely it is the need for independent regulation and inspection, be it for the banks or the health services. The irony is that just a few miles across the Border from Monaghan in Northern Ireland, regulation and inspection has been up and running for years. Even accepting some delay in implementing standards for adults, could we at least change the regulations under the Child Care Acts to allow for inspection of homes which cater for children with disabilities? A small cost for child protection to an Exchequer funding 20 junior Ministers and numerous quangos.
Mr Moloney is seeking savings by way of a value for money review of voluntary disability bodies, as part of a larger value for money review of both voluntary and HSE disability services. With disability services costing in the region €1.8 billion in 2007 (€2.3 billion if mental health services are included), there is no doubt that there is room for savings, yet efficiency cuts alone will not be enough.
The current method of paying service providers a sum of money (on average €80,000 per year) to provide one person with an intellectual disability a residential place, is expensive and inflexible. The person and his or her family do not have much say in how the money is spent, or have a choice of service provider. Perhaps more importantly, the money is attached to the service, not the person, with the demands of unions and staff taking precedence.
The Taoiseach is no stranger to the problems facing people with an intellectual disability. As minister for health and children in 1998, he fought for, and won, significant extra funding for services from his Cabinet colleagues, and in his home county of Offaly he is respected as a genuine supporter of local disability groups. Last year he promised delegates at Inclusion Ireland’s agm, that he would do his best for people with disabilities. Delegates at agm 2009 want him to keep his promise, and made it clear that rather than accept cutbacks, they will fight back.
Deirdre Carroll is chief executive of Inclusion Ireland