Tully motion on disability services fails to attract Government support

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Disability and Carers Pauline Tully TD has expressed her dismay that the Government failed to support a cross-party disability motion introduced to the Dáil last week.

Proposed by the local Oireachtas member herself, the motion had the backing of other opposition parties and most of the Independents. It called for “adequate funding and resources” to be made available to ensure the full re-opening of day services for people with a disability.

“Unfortunately, the Government parties decided to ignore the pleas of people with disabilities, their families, carers and service providers and did not back this motion,” said Deputy Tully.

“The €10 million that the Government did allocate left people with disabilities and service providers ‘shocked’ as they conveyed that this was ‘just a fraction of the funding required for services for people with disabilities’.”

She continued by stating that the pandemic had caused “huge disruption” to the lives of people with disabilities.

Many day service centres, she said, were “totally shut” during lockdown. Although now reopened, they are at a much-reduced capacity.

“Those working in the sector have warned this is because they do not have additional funding that they would need to fully reopen while putting in place necessary COVID-19 protocols,” added Deputy Tully.

“Many families have spoken of their frustration and distress as they have seen their loved ones’ health regress and deteriorate without these services. Without them, families across the state are feeling the personal toll and long-term impact of this lack of support.

“We rightly allocated resources to fully re-open schools and now must do the same to ensure the full re-opening of day services.”