In an unprecedented display of unity, 700 delegates from disability groups around the State came together to demand that the Government bring in urgent measures to protect people with disabilities in long-term training.
The chief executive of the National Representative Council, Mr Paddy Doyle, told a conference in Dublin yesterday that the places of more than 1,000 people with disabilities on Rehab long-term training and care schemes were at risk because of "chronic under-funding".
"While the State currently allocates annual per-capita funding averaging just £1,167 for this group, a team of independent assessors has concluded that funding must be quadrupled if an adequate service is to be maintained.
"Of the Exchequer funding, up to £1,000 goes towards a weekly allowance for trainees, leaving as little as £167 - or 46 pence per person per day - to support the service."
The Rehab Group's chief executive, Mr Frank Flannery, said that without an extra £3.1 million per year for the 1,015 people on long-term schemes, most of them with learning difficulties, it would be impossible to fund the service into the new year.
The disability groups' joint pre-Budget submission also calls for more funding to provide personal assistants for people with disabilities.
The conference heard that disabled people were being forced to give up jobs, training and college places because of a severe shortage of personal assistants, who are paid as little as £102 for a 35-hour week.