Specific Details
DFI's Pre-Budget Campaigning
Intended results
1. Increase Disability Allowance by €20 a week to provide an adequate minimum income that guards against poverty at a cost of €133m. This as an interim measure; DFI also recommends further increases in DA over the next few years to offset the decreased purchasing power of people with disabilities, and to contribute to the extra costs of living with a disability.
2. Grant Medical Cards based on medical need, not income.
3. Re-introduce the Telephone Allowance as part of the Household Benefits Package, and allow for the inclusion of mobile devices and internet access under the allowance.
4. Restore the budget for disability services to its former level prior to the recession, by increasing it by €50m each year from 2017.
5. Develop an overarching policy framework for Personal Assistance and meet the need for the service by increasing the budget by €15m each year for the next two years.
6. Provide for the re-allocation of funding under the ‘Fair Deal’ through the proposed statutory homecare scheme.
7. Invest in Local Area Coordination and roll it out across the country as a means to support people with disabilities to live in their communities.
8. Ensure the implementation of the Assisted Decision Making Act is properly resourced, including training for people such as social workers and health care professionals who will be using it in their work.
9. Invest in the roll out of community neuro-rehabilitation teams in each of the nine CHOs as part of the revised implementation plan for the Neuro-Rehabilitation Strategy.
10. Under the Progressing Disability Services for Children programme, provide consistent investment in therapy posts until the required complement of posts for each team (Speech and Language Therapists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Child Psychologists) has been reached. The backlog in demand for children’s therapy services is now from 300 – 400 posts, to rise to 350-450 by 2021, and stay steady to 2026. An estimated cost to recruit 350 posts is €24 million.
11. Invest in therapy posts for adults. There are no accurate figures for the number of therapy staff in adult disability services, which makes it difficult to do a costing. It is estimated that demand for therapy staff is likely to double for both people with intellectual disabilities, and physical and sensory disabilities.
12. Cut waiting lists for specialist and mainstream health services by 50%.
13. Increase the mental health budget to at least 8.24% of the overall health budget, as recommended in A Vision for Change. Ireland compares badly with other jurisdictions such as Britain and Canada, where it is currently 13%, and New Zealand where it is 11%. The amount allocated for mental health in 2017 was €851.3m, which is 5.8% of the total health budget (€14.6bn). Increasing this to 8.24% would cost an extra €351m.
14. Tackle the high costs of prescriptions charges, medicines, and hospital charges to offset the costs of disability and illnesses experienced by people with disabilities.
15. Grant Medical Cards based on a person’s medical needs, not on their income.
16. Invest in increasing the number of GPs and associated health professionals working in primary care teams around the country. This has been estimated to cost €47m a year for 5 years, based on data from the Sláintecare report.
17. Invest in prevention interventions and policies tailored to the specific needs of different groups of people with disabilities as part of the implementation plan for the Healthy Ireland Framework. The budget for the implementation of the HI Framework should be doubled to €10m.
18. Introduce a tax credit similar to a blind person’s credit to offset the cost of disability.
19. Raise the Medical Card earnings disregard from its current level of €120 per week for people on Disability Allowance or on Partial Capacity Benefit associated with Invalidity Pension as per the recommendation in the ‘Make Work Pay’ report.
20. Allow people to retain their Free Travel Pass for five years after starting work, as recommended in the ‘Make Work Pay’ report.
21. Ensure that eligibility and supports for all employment activation schemes includes people with disabilities.
22. Ensure that cross-departmental responsibility for funding Personal Assistant hours in the workplace is clarified, to ensure that people who need PA support can receive it, and participate in work.
23. Invest in accessible and assistive technologies to support people in education training and employment.
24. Introduce protocols to assure fast track reinstatement of Disability Allowance for those for whom a job does not work out.
25. Deliver further on the EPSEN Act 2004, prioritising entitlement to an Individual Education Plan with associated resources for every child with a disability.
26. Protect existing supports and resources to the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People, aged 0 – 18 years project, to ensure equity of access to education settings and services.
27. Invest in supporting people with disabilities access mainstream further education and training (FET) initiatives through the funding of appropriate supports and accommodations to learners with disabilities across all levels of FET programmes managed through the Education and Training Boards (ETBs); and through the appointment of a Disability expert at ETB and/or college/centre level as the lead and key contact and support person for learners.
28. Immediately extend the funding supports for people with disabilities in education to part time students.
29. Ensure that advances in universal design and technology are resourced to support people to participate in mainstream educational settings at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.
30. Increase numbers of NEPS psychologists by 20 to progressively achieve target of 238, as stated in the Programme for a Partnership Government, and provide improved
31. Provide a budget for the advisory committee to help IHERC monitor the UN CRPD of €150,000 a year.
32. Increase the budget for IHREC by €660,000, as the monitoring mechanism for the UN CRPD, to allow it to carry out its new duties.
33. Increase resources for all departments, to support their identification and improvement of policies that are not in line with the UN CRPD.
34. Progress drafting of the Transport Support Scheme for the new bill to replace the Mobility Allowance and commit resources to Scheme as a matter of urgency. This has been promised for several years, but so far the process has stalled.
35. Double the number of fully accessible taxis by the end of 2018, bringing the figure to 10% of all taxis.
36. Introduce a major infrastructure programme to make all public transport services fully wheelchair accessible, including replacing non-wheelchair accessible vehicles for Bus Éireann subsidised services, constructing wheelchair accessible bus stops, undertaking accessibility works to bus stations, railway stations and the train fleet over a term of government. As part of this programme, provide for unassisted access to trains by ensuring that at least one carriage per train is fitted with an e
37. Increase the Capital Assistance Scheme to at least €90m to cover the rollover costs and to maximise the approval and completion of new accessible builds and acquisitions in 2018.
38. Introduce a tax rebate to incentivise private property developers to build new accessible housing for people with disabilities which would go beyond the Part M requirement of being visitable.
39. Likewise introduce a tax rebate to incentivise private landlords of existing housing to adapt their properties to make them fully accessible and not just visitable. Link this rebate to the renting of this property to people on the social housing waiting list on the grounds of disability.
40. Increase the Housing Adaptation Grant by a further €30m. This will facilitate people with disabilities to remain living in their homes within the community. This would also support the aims of the proposed statutory homecare scheme.
41. Developers of all social housing projects be required by Ministerial Order to set out within the planning process what accommodation provisions will be made for people/families who have a disability.
42. Progress drafting of the Transport Support Scheme for the new bill to replace the Mobility Allowance and commit resources to Scheme as a matter of urgency. This has been promised for several years, but so far the process has stalled.
43. Double the number of fully accessible taxis by the end of 2018, bringing the figure to 10% of all taxis.
44. Introduce a major infrastructure programme to make all public transport services fully wheelchair accessible, including replacing non-wheelchair accessible vehicles for Bus Éireann subsidised services, constructing wheelchair accessible bus stops, undertaking accessibility works to bus stations, railway stations and the train fleet over a term of government. As part of this programme, provide for unassisted access to trains by ensuring that at least one carriage per train is fitted with an e
45. Provide a budget for the advisory committee to help IHERC monitor the UN CRPD of €150,000 a year.
46. Increase the budget for IHREC by €660,000, as the monitoring mechanism for the UN CRPD, to allow it to carry out its new duties.
47. Increase resources for all departments, to support their identification and improvement of policies that are not in line with the UN CRPD.
Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity
Allen Dunne via India Sacre
Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?)
No
Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign?
Yes
What is the directive you gave to the grassroots campaigners?
Asking DFI's member organisations to lobby with TDs provided in email to draw attention of effects of crumbling disability services on people with disabilities
Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client?
No
Lobbying activity
The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.
Email (100+)
Email sent to all of DFI's member organisations to lobby with TDs provided in email to draw attention of effects of crumbling disability services on people with disabilities
Letter (100+)
Letter sent to all of DFI's member organisations to lobby with TDs provided in email to draw attention of effects of crumbling disability services on pwds
Designated public officials lobbied
The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them.
As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.
Leo Varadkar
Taoiseach (Department of the Taoiseach)
Paschal Donohoe
Minister (Department of Finance)
Simon Harris
Minister (Department of Health)
Regina Doherty
Minister (Department of Social Protection)
Noel Rock
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Kate O'Connell
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Dara Murphy
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Alan Farrell
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
John Deasy
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Martin Heydon
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Tom Neville
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Fergus O'Dowd
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Colm Brophy
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Josepha Madigan
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Maria Bailey
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Marcella Corcoran Kennedy
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Pat Deering
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Hildegarde Naughton
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Peter Burke
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Joe Carey
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Michael McGrath
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Micheál Martin
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Billy Kelleher
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Jim O'Callaghan
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Michael Moynihan
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Willie O'Dea
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)