Disability authority insists funding will be cut

THE NATIONAL Disability Authority has insisted its funding will be cut next year, despite official records which indicate it is due to receive a 23 per cent increase in State funding next year.

According to the Department of Finance’s spending estimates released with last week’s Budget, the authority is set to receive a significant increase from €4.7 million in 2009 to almost €6 million next year.

The move angered organisations representing people with disabilities and Opposition parties who said it contrasted with the treatment of vulnerable people who were forced to cope with major cuts in disability payments and to the carer’s allowance.

However, director of the authority Siobhán Barron said yesterday that the authority was, in fact, due to have its funding reduced.

She said the authority was allocated around €6.3 million for 2009. In response to the deteriorating public finances, it cut its budget during the year by a total of €1.6 million.

As a result, the 2009 figure quoted in the Department of Finance documents represented its out-turn or end-of-year figures.

Ms Barron said: “We will be facing a reduction in the region of around €400,000, but the estimates figures have yet to be finalised. We won’t know until February what funding will be available to us.”

She said the authority reduced its expenditure significantly through cost-cutting measures such as not filling vacancies and securing more competitive tenders.

Ms Barron added that the authority was concerned about cuts in disability and carer’s allowance, which are likely to impact heavily on vulnerable people with disabilities.

She said the authority will be writing to the Minister to express its concern over the measures announced in the Budget.

A number of groups representing people with disabilities have criticised the cuts as an “attack on the direct living standards and the quality of life of people with disabilities”.

Inclusion Ireland, a coalition of disability groups, says the cuts undermine the Government’s pledge in the lead-up to the Budget to protect the most vulnerable.

“The disability allowance now stands at €196 a week, and this cutback is compounded by other cuts to child benefit, the prescription levy and cuts in dental treatment,” the organisation said in a statement. “It is also at variance with the National Disability Strategy, which is often spoken about by Government as evidence of their commitment to people with disabilities.

“The moratorium on recruitment and other cuts to the healthcare budget will impact directly on the services people with a disability can expect to receive.”