Guide dog funds of €780,000 announced

MINISTER FOR Health Mary Harney has pledged to give careful consideration to providing additional funding to the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind after announcing funding of €780,000 to assist with a €4.5 million redevelopment of its headquarters and training centre.

Ms Harney paid tribute to the association for its work in providing trained guide dogs for more than 500 visually impaired people and trained assistance dogs for 55 children with autism since its establishment in Cork in 1976.

"This is a wonderful organisation. This year they trained 42 guide dogs and 22 assistance dogs for children with autism, so visually impaired and blind people would not be able to operate independent lives if it was not for the great work done by the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.

"In addition to training the dogs, they also provide mobility training for people who are visually impaired in independent living skills and that's invaluable in allowing people to be able to live at home and in their own community," she said.

Ms Harney was speaking yesterday during a visit to the association headquarters on Model Farm Road in Cork. She laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment, which includes two new state-of-the-art kennels which will enable the association to increase the number of dogs under training.

The new facility, which is expected to take 16 months to complete, will also include six new family-sized rooms for families of clients attending the centre for training, as well a new state-of- the-art independent living and training zone for visually impaired people.

Asked about providing additional funding for the redevelopment, Ms Harney would not give a specific commitment but said that the Government would consider the case made by the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind for additional funding very carefully.

"Obviously there is a lot of pressure on public funding but clearly over the years, we have been very supportive of the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind although the organisation has now made the case for more money," the Minister continued.

"A lot of competing worthy organisations supporting people with disabilities are seeking additional resources and in the context of the priority on resources, we try and make as much money as available particularly to an organisation supporting the blind and visually impaired."