Disability rights campaigners from Donegal and Thomas Pringle TD are a step closer to cementing a historic change for people with disabilities across Ireland.
The Dáil has this week passed a motion brought forward by Deputy Pringle to secure a right to access a personal assistance service for disabled people.
The motion calls on the government to legislate for funding a personal assistance service for those who need it in Ireland. It also requests the Dáil to legislate to provide for the establishment of a Commissioner for Independent Living within the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
The motion was welcomed and unanimously agreed upon in the Dáil on Wednesday.
Speaking afterwards, Thomas Pringle TD said: “I want to thank the Centre for Independent Living in Donegal Rosaleen Bradley, Frank Larkin and Vicky Mathew who have been very supportive of the motion and who continue to campaign for the rights of people with disabilities in Donegal.
“While I welcome the overwhelming support in the Dáil for my motion it’s time the Government shows its support with action by legislating to establish a Commissioner for Independent Living tasked with the necessary functions to enable the right to access a personal assistance service for people with disabilities in Ireland.”
“While we have a Personal assistance service in Ireland, it is chronically underfunded, inconsistent and incomplete, restricting the lives of many disabled people and their desire for independent living,” Pringle explained.
“I know that many disabled people can attest to this in the context of Donegal as people in rural Ireland face extra barriers to independent living with the added restriction of limited access to transport, education and employment.
“Many thousands of people in Ireland have access to a Personal Assistance service, yet many more than that remain without. Currently, only 0.3% of disabled people have access to a personal assistant service.
“For those who do get it, the service remains limited and access is restricted due to lack of funding. Since 2008 funding for PA hours has not increased and disabled people have been witnesses to the constant degradation of support services as Governments past and present continue to outsource service provision in this country. It can depend where you are on the waiting lists, which Health are you live in in the case of CHO1 for Donegal access to health services is even more restricted and under resourced.
“I welcome the support for this motion as it continues my work on rights-based initiatives which I believe is the only way we can achieve progress in this country and the only way we can eradicate inequality, disadvantage and the barriers which disable people in society.”