Disabled take funds demand to the streets

The Irish Wheelchair Association took 40 buses on to the streets of Dublin yesterday to call for more resources for people with disabilities in the Budget.

Hundreds of members converged on Mountjoy Square for a "drive past" Government Buildings, before travelling to IWA headquarters in Clontarf where a discussion was held with an all-party panel of politicians.

"Funding. We're talking funding - just for the basics," said Ms Anne Winslow of the IWA. "Everyone, the Government included, has acknowledged that the level of support people are getting is inadequate. But what we need now is not words but action," she said.

The organisation's demands are:

an increase in the disability allowance from the current £77.50 a week;

at least a doubling of the mobility allowance from £45.20 a month, and an end to means testing for the allowance;

at least a doubling of the maximum housing grant for disabled people from its present limit of £14,000;

more resources in disability services, particularly home assistance, residential respite and resource centres.

Ms Winslow noted three-quarters of the IWA's 13,000 members were dependent on social welfare payments and tended to be marginalised in Budget considerations. "Because we've no economic power, we have difficulty making ourselves heard," she said.

Association chairman Mr Michael McCabe said he was angry it had to return year after year to demand basic rights for people with disabilities. "As somebody who has had a disability all my life, I am wary and disillusioned at being treated as if I hardly exist, never mind matter, in Irish society," he said.

Ms Winslow said the IWA looked forward to the publication of the Disabilities Bill next year and did not oppose funding disabled people directly, rather than service providers such as the IWA. "If it means giving people more choice and independence, we would support that," she said.