The government has been criticised for “breathtaking incompetence” as disability organisations’ wait for emergency funding enters the 20th month.
The Children’s Disability Service grant was launched in October 2023 and again in June 2024, and was to be used to fund projects helping children with special needs.
The fund was launched in a blaze of publicity using Killygordon boy Jack Donaghey.
With no funding to be seen, Donegal Deputy Pearse Doherty said Jack’s mother Denise McGahern she felt as though her son was used as a prop and a photo opportunity during an election campaign.
The Donegal TD said that it is “disrespectful and cruel” for the government to repeatedly announce funding for parents and families that are desperate for assistance that has yet to materialise.
Raising the issue in the Dáil with the Tánaiste at Leaders’ Questions, Teachta Doherty said: “I have received confirmation that vital funding through the Children’s Disability Grant– first announced by government 20 long months ago – still hasn’t been released.
“Worse still, I have seen a letter that shows funding for specific organisations that the Minister already announced publicly have been asked to reapply for short-listing with no guarantee that funding for their project will actually be granted.
“This was supposed to be emergency funding, when it was announced in 2023, to fill the gaping hole in HSE service provision and to deliver vital therapies for children.
“Parents of children with special needs thought that government had finally heard their cries for help. But months went by, and nothing happened. No funding released.
“Just two days before the local elections in June 2024, government ministers at the time, Anne Rabbitte and Charlie McConalogue, held a press event in Donegal to reannounce the funding.
“When I raised this in March this year, and the story of how Jack and Denise were used in government photo-op in the run up to an election only to be left waiting for promised funding, the Tánaiste apologised. He said that he would not defend something that is indefensible.
“Five days after our exchange in the Dáil, government again announced that the funding would be released. Yet, despite that promise, here we are, a further three months on, and the funding has not been released. The 54 organisations who thought they had successfully applied for the grant haven’t seen a single red cent.
“Most alarmingly we now learn that funding for specific organisations that was already announced by the Minister, have now been told they have to reapply. That the funding is no longer multi-annual as was promised. And that they only have until the end of the year to spend money you still haven’t even given them.
“This government has announced this funding on three separate occasions. Each time promises have disappeared without a trace. No follow-through. No delivery. No funding.
“These children and their parents left crying out for the help that they’ve been promised again and again. It’s cruel and disrespectful what government is doing here.
“The government must end this unacceptable situation and apologise to the families and organisations involved.”
