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Pringle: Disabled people and carers face crisis of State neglect
- Updated: 25th November 2024
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, said government must listen to people with disabilities, carers and disability services workers, as he repeated his call for a permanent cost of disability payment for disabled people, and for the means test for the Carer’s Allowance to be scrapped, among other measures.
Deputy Pringle said: “Successive governments have ignored the repeated calls of many Disabled Persons’ Organisations for a permanent cost of disability payment and have failed to acknowledge and properly support the work of carers.
“The current means test and limit on hours that a carer is allowed to work are outdated and punitive. We must scrap the means test and hourly limit and increase the Carer’s Support Grant.
“The 2020 Programme for Government committed to introducing a statutory home care scheme, but this was another undelivered promise. Donegal people and people around the country are being approved for home help yet told there is no home help available for them.
“This can’t go on. We need increased home help hours and staff and better-funded home help packages so that everyone who needs home help receives the help they need.
“Section 39 workers have waited far too long for pay parity. It’s not good enough for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to say it is a matter for the organisations as employers, when their funding comes exclusively from the HSE and the Department of Health.
“Organisations and workers in Donegal have told me that the ongoing disparity in pay and conditions, compared to their HSE and Section 38 counterparts, is also fuelling their recruitment and retention problems.
“The Disability Federation of Ireland tells us that people with disabilities are disproportionately at risk of poverty and deprivation. The significant additional costs that disabled people face are not met by existing programmes or social welfare payments.
“This must be addressed with a permanent cost of disability payment. We need a government that will promote the social model of disability and challenge the medical model through a human rights and equality approach.
“Independent Living Movement Ireland have highlighted the importance of a national Personal Assistance Service, and the urgent need for infrastructure designed to ensure that our world is accessible. We need a government that will make these a priority.
“I have been a strong advocate in the Dáil for these measures and others because I have listened to disabled constituents, to DPOs, to carers and to workers who have told me how vital these measures are to address the pressing needs that successive governments have not met.
“We need a government that will listen to the people, not dismiss them, and will take the steps necessary to address their concerns,” he said.
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