The Government is examining proposals from the Department of Health to source an extra €20 million in emergency funding to help prevent a crisis in services for the intellectually disabled.
The Minister of State with special responsibility for disability, Mr Tim O'Malley, met the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to discuss the proposals in recent weeks.
Mr O'Malley told The Irish Times that he was "optimistic" that the Government would respond positively to the request for funds aimed at dealing with "emergency cases".
Disability groups say these cases, which typically involve a disabled person who can no longer be cared for at home due to a death in the family, are on the increase due to a lack of funding for new residential places this year.
The Government allocated an extra €13.3 million in funding for the sector this year, but this has been swallowed up by inflation and other cost increases.
Mr O'Malley said he had spoken to a number of Cabinet colleagues about the need for extra funding and said he was "very well received" by Mr Ahern and Ms Harney at a recent meeting on the matter.
He declined to say how much money he was seeking, but it is understood that officials in the Department of Health believe an extra €20 million is needed.
The Minister said there had been major increases in funding for the disability sector in recent years, including a three-year cash injection worth €244 million which was used to increase the level of residential, day and respite services.
The issue of emergency funding arose in the Dáil earlier this year when the Labour Party tabled a motion calling for an extra €35 million to meet the needs of people with disabilities this year.
Labour's spokeswoman on equality, Ms Breeda Moynihan Cronin, recently criticised the Government for voting down the motion.
"That €35 million is a tiny sum compared to what the Governments plan to spend on two new Government jets. This is a stark and damning indictment of a Government with warped priorities and a very tardy approach to rights-based legislation for people with disabilities," she said.
The National Association of the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland (NAMHI), an umbrella group for the intellectually disabled, says it is encountering an increasing number of emergency cases combined with a chronic lack of appropriate residential services.
Ms Deirdre Carroll of NAMHI said intellectually disabled people were being accommodated in settings such as nursing homes and psychiatric hospital as a result of the "crisis".
She said the lack of appropriate residential units often meant a person's condition regressed due to the lack of appropriate therapies or activities.
Pressure on the Government to act has increased due to the hosting of the Special Olympics.
At the opening ceremony of the games on Saturday night, The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, received a mixed reception, including booing from a section of the crowd. The publication of the Intellectual Disability Database for 2001 in recent days has also illustrated the shortcomings in the area of services.
It shows that more than 2,000 intellectually disabled people have no services or have not received a diagnosis of their condition from health authorities.
