CAMPAIGN 2012
Irish Government failing its citizens with disabilities.
WHAT DO WE WANT?
- No more cuts - we have had a cumulative 11% cut to date this is already affecting the provision of personal assistance and other vital services for people with disabilities
- Reversal of the cuts to Community Employment schemes which CILs depend upon to operate effectively
- The Irish State should immediately ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
CIL calls on the Irish State to immediately Ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) together with the Optional Protocol. In not ratifying, Ireland is in a minority of countries - 106 have now ratified it. Since March 2007 the Government has promised to ratify saying the obstacle for not doing so was the lack of modern capacity legislation. Whilst we also call for capacity legislation to be brought in, we do not accept the lack of same being used as an excuse for not ratifying. New capacity legislation is not a pre-requisite to ratifying the Convention - furthermore the Government's assertion that Ireland does not ratify international treaties until all matters have been put in place is wrong; there is no coherent approach to this State's ratification of international treaties. At the very least Ireland has a moral obligation to ratify this important human rights instrument.
NO MORE EXCUSES! We have been strung along for almost 5 years, its time to act! The Convention is all about reaffirming the right of people with disabilities to be treated as equals in society. For the first time Independent Living would be enshrined in Irish law - Article 19 says
"States Parties to the present Convention recognize the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and shall take effective and appropriate measures to facilitate full enjoyment by persons with disabilities of this right and their full inclusion and participation in the community, including by ensuring that:(a) Persons with disabilities have the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement; (b) Persons with disabilities have access to a range of in-home, residential and other community support services, including personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to prevent isolation or segregation from the community; (c) Community services and facilities for the general population are available on an equal basis to persons with disabilities and are responsive to their needs."
The Convention is about BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS - what is the Government afraid of?
Thursday, 09 February 2012
Address of Michael McCabe, Chairperson of the Center for Independent Living, to a hearing in the European Parliament on Independent Living
SPEECH
“Ladies and gentlemen of the assembly -
I thank ENIL/ for giving me this opportunity to speak to you this afternoon.
€85 billion is the amount the Irish Government committed Ireland to paying in order to bail out the banks.
€85 billion amounts to almost €19,000 for every man, woman and child in the country of Ireland.
€85 billion would provide 405 million personal assistance hours for people with disabilities in Ireland, this equates to financing the largest personal assistance service provider in Ireland for more than 200 years.
To pay off the banks the Irish State had to call in the IMF and the EU who together put in place a bailout package for Ireland. Currently Ireland is paying back this money subject to an interest rate of 3%, while banks around Europe are availing of loans from the ECB at an interest rate of 1%. The tax payer in Ireland is paying three times the rate of the Banks, the same banks that got us into this mess!
Coupled with our banking crisis we are spending €20 billion a year more than we bring in – a lot of this is down to the large salaries our public servants receive.
Before they gave us the bailout funds the IMF/EU got us to sign a ‘memorandum of understanding’ whereby we agreed to austerity measures in exchange for the loan. The Government agreed to cut and cut they did. As usual it’s the most vulnerable who are paying the price of the extravagances of the better off.
The vulnerable are being singled out - this is in stark contravention of the European Disability Strategic Plan"......to view the rest of the speech, click here.
Thursday, 9th February 2012
PRESS RELEASE
IRISH MAN TO TELL EUROPEAN PARLIMANET MEETING OF IMPACT OF AUSTERITY CUTS ON PEOPLE WITH A DISABILITY
The Chairperson of the Centre for Independent Living, Michael McCabe, will today (9.02.12) address a hearing of the European Parliament into the impact which austerity cuts are having on people with disabilities. The hearing will take place at 3pm in room A1G2 of the European Parliament building.
Michael McCabe, who is a wheelchair user, will outline how people with disabilities in Ireland are being particularly affected. Speaking in advance of his presentation, Mr McCabe said: “The Irish Government, in order to raise money to pay interest on the loan given by the EU/IMF, is targeting the vulnerable. On a daily basis, people with disabilities are being stripped of rights and services that enable us to participate fully in our community and wider society. The loss of personal assistance hours means that many of us cannot leave our homes and loss in other supports has left us at risk of greater poverty and exclusion.
“These cuts contravene the European Disability Strategic Plan which has the general objective of eliminating of discrimination on the grounds of disability. It also seeks to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for persons with disabilities as well as their active inclusion. Right now, many of us feel like we are being robbed of the rights and freedoms,” he said.
Evidence shows that even before the current financial crisis, people with disabilities were among the most marginalised and excluded groups in Europe. A total of 62 per cent of Europeans with disabilities are among the poorest persons in Europe. As opposed to 69 per cent of Europeans who have a job, only 29 per cent of disabled people are in employment. While 18 per cent of all Europeans go to university, the figure for people with disabilities is only 9 per cent.
The centre for Independent Living believes that – if austerity cuts continue to impact on people with disabilities – these indicators will continue to deteriorate.
Today’s hearing will present the impact cuts in public spending have had on services for persons with disabilities in the EU using results gathered through the EDF Observatory of the Crisis. The second part of the hearing will aim to identify actions that can be taken by the European Commission and the European Parliament to address this situation and ensure that the rights of disabled people in the EU are upheld.
Michael McCabe said that, in addition to detailing the impact of cuts on people with disabilities in Ireland, he also intended raising the failure by the Irish Government to ratify an important convention relating to disability. “The Irish Government hasn’t even had the moral decency to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, one of the most significant Human Rights instruments in recent years. Pressure needs to be brought to bear on the Irish State to immediately ratify the UN Convention and, over the coming month; we will be pressing harder to ensure this happens,” he said.
Tuesday, 7th February 2012
PRESS RELEASE
CAMPAIGN MOBILISES TO STOP CUTS TO VITAL SERVICE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
The Chairman of the Centre for Independent Living (CIL) has announced today (7.02.12) that it has commenced a campaign among its membership against cuts to the Personal Assistance (PA) services.
The PA service enables many people with disabilities to take up employment and participate more fully in their community?. However, over the past number of months, there has been a significant reduction in PA services available and, in particular, out-of-home services have been effectively curtailed.
PA services are operated through mainstream services, as well as through Community Employment schemes. In December, the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton TD, assured the Centre for Independent Living that Personal Assistants would be maintained with the support of her Department, even where some Community Employment Schemes were under threat. However, this assurance has not amounted to anything as a significant cut was imposed on the budget of Community Employment Schemes regardless. This has a direct impact on the availability of Personal Assistance Services. In addition where individuals are in a position to take up mainstream Personal Assistance Services they too are being hit by a significant reduction in service hours provided through the HSE.
Since early last July the Centre for Independent Living has received reports from its members of cuts to Personal Assistance. CIL has been in high level discussions since then regarding this however to date the cuts continue to be made. The accumulative effect of the CE scheme cuts together with that of the HSE funding is to effectively institutionalise people in their own homes.
According to the Chairperson of the Centre for Independent Living, Michael McCabe, “People with disabilities understand the need to ensure value for money in our public services. However, bluntly cutting the availability of the PA services means that less people with a disability will have the freedom to live independently. This cut needs to be evaluated against the cost of providing rehabilitative, institutionalised or congregated care to the affected group of people.
“It is our view that the withdrawal of PA will put even more pressure on frontline staff, and will cost more money in the long run. At a human level, it robs people of their personal freedoms and prohibits those of us who have been affected from participating in society.
“It has taken over two decades to establish good quality, widespread PA services around Ireland. This has had an extremely positive impact on the lives of many people with a disability. For some it has meant being able to take up employment; for others, it has meant the opportunity to get involved in community projects and voluntary activity. The diminution of this service – through what appears to be a lack of policy and social analysis – is now starting to hit hard,” he said.
The Centre for Independent Living is now working with its membership around the country to roll-out a campaign of political and public awareness to ensure that the PA service is brought back to full service and that no further blunt cuts – that have such a hugely negative impact on the health and well-being of people with disabilities – are implemented.
It is expected that Ministers, TDs and Senators will receive correspondences this week from people directly affected by the cuts in PA services.
Campaign 2012 - letter to An Taoiseach 7th Feb 2012 '- Click Here To View
29 11 2011 letter 1 update KL.pdf - Click Here To View
29 11 2011 letter 1 update.pdf - Click Here To View