Disabled to receive priority under new policy

Last year the D-word in the Budget was decentralisation. This year it's disability. And the tens of thousands of people with disabilities, their families and carers, hope this latest policy pledge has better prospects of being fully implemented.

On the face of it the spending plans set out by the Minister for Finance have the potential to move disabled people towards the front of the political queue after years of neglect and under-provision.

The most eye-catching element in the spending plans is a multi-annual investment programme for disability support services worth €900 million in capital and current funding between 2006 and 2009.

The Government traditionally allocates current funding for disability support services on a year-to-year basis. This has often resulted in the construction of new facilities without adequate funds to staff them.

However, this is the first time the Government has adopted a multi-annual approach to current funding. This raises hopes that the disability sector, which has always punched below its weight in allocation of resources, will receive consistently high levels of funding for at least the next five years.

The need for adequate investment in the disability sector has been clear for years, underlined by stark official figures which show the level of need among intellectually-disabled people over the next five years.

Latest figures, for example, show 2,200 intellectually-disabled people are either without any service, or a major element of a service, and more than 1,700 will need residential services within the next five years.

The €900 million will go a long way to addressing this sector by creating thousands of new residential, respite and day places for people with autism or intellectual, physical or sensory disabilities.

Disability groups will welcome the increases, but they won't spell the end of waiting lists. In residential services, for example, around 1,700 places are needed within five years. Yesterday's funding plan is expected to create around 1,200 such places during this period.

While there is laudable talk of addressing the needs of large sections of the population with disabilities by 2009, things will get off to a reasonably slow start next year.

An increase of €290 million is provided for next year. However, much of this will be absorbed by pay commitments, including benchmarking. This will leave less than half that amount to provide home support, personal assistance and community-based mental health facilities.

The promises of funding, however, will not distract people with disabilities from the provisions of the Disability Bill, the effects of which will remain long after multi-annual plans have expired.

Campaigners say the Bill excludes thousands of people with disabilities due to its restricted definition of disability, provides a right to an assessment of needs but no right to services, and subjects the provision of services to the availability of resources.

Multi-annual budgets come and go and Minister Cowen is acutely aware of how political priorities can change, particularly in the disability sector.

There is little doubting the Minister's personal commitment to the area of disability. As Minister for Health, he introduced a three-year investment plan to address the needs of people with intellectual disabilities between 2000 and 2003.

The funding was widely welcomed and made a real difference to disabled people's needs. However, funding for this area was cut back dramatically after this plan of investment expired, causing chaos and leading to a growth in waiting lists for residential care. The sector was later bailed out by emergency funding to the tune of €50 million, just days ahead of the launch of the Special Olympics last year.

It is not clear whether the €900 million will be specifically ring-fenced for the disability sector. Minister Cowen yesterday avoided using the word, but did insist that funding was "guaranteed".

There was also some wincing among organisation representing disabled people when the Minister spoke of how it was "absolutely essential" that the Government worked in partnership with them to get the improved services required. Many feel their submissions as part of a two-year consultation process which led to the drafting of the Disability Bill were ignored when the legislation was published this year.

The Minister himself noted yesterday that disability had suffered in the past. It had failed to receive the same level of public attention as hospital waiting lists or medical cards do.

Last year the word 'disability' barely figured in the Budget. This year the word was peppered throughout Minister Cowen's 45-minute speech. Whether it will remain on the lips of Government ministers will depend on competing political priorities in the years ahead.