ASSURANCES BY Government spokesmen that spending cuts will not impact unduly on the most vulnerable members of society are being treated with scepticism by some voluntary agencies.
They have cause to be concerned. Services provided by the Health Service Executive for people with mental and physical disabilities have already been scaled back.
The situation may worsen when financial allocations for this year are agreed. Even at this late stage, however, Ministers should recall the long-term impact a “slash and burn” approach had on health services in 1987 and the imperative that the most vulnerable should be protected now.
There is no doubt money can be saved in providing for people with physical and mental disabilities while delivering a better quality of service. There is a risk, however, that the easy option of cutting allocations across the board will be adopted, rather than embark on a rationalisation of agencies and services. Official neglect spanning decades has not just involved a failure to provide proper health and community support services. It has also encouraged an untrammelled growth of voluntary bodies, some of which operate with little oversight, no proper audit and a deal of duplication.
An examination of the sector by the Comptroller and Auditor General some time ago discovered that in excess of 600 community and voluntary agencies are being funded by the State. No proper audit was conducted on how money was being spent. And there was little official oversight of the services being provided or measurement of the outcomes being achieved. Many of these agencies work hard and provide essential local services. But even they accept that changes to the existing system could deliver better value for money.
At the height of the boom, the Government pledged to devote an additional €25 million a year to mental health care. But the bulk of that funding was diverted to acute hospital services. This year, there will be no extra money. The only prospect of additional funding will be from the sale of land at psychiatric hospitals.
The Disability Federation of Ireland is concerned there will be a repeat of what happened in the 1980s when the heart was cut out of health services and social infrastructure was so severely damaged that it took many years to recover. Should that happen, hundreds of thousands of people could be affected. The Government recently adopted ambitious development programmes that gave hope to this vulnerable group of people. Those commitments should be honoured whatever sacrifices have to be made by the community at large.