Disability Policy

Summary

  • Ensure that the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability (UNCRPD).
  • Grant Medical Cards on basis on patient need not income.
  • Extend the Disability Act 2005 to include all persons with a disability.
  • Enact Part II of the Disability Rights Act to entitle people to an immediate needs assessment.
  • Implement the Education of Persons with Special Education Needs Act (2004).
  • Implement the Assisted Decision-Making Act (2015).
  • Establish a Joint Oireachtas Disability Inclusion Committee.
  • Introduce hate crime legislation to tackle crimes against the disabled.
  • Implement the Citizens Information Act 2007.
  • Establish a National Advocacy Authority to protect the rights of people with disabilities.
  • Establish a National Respite Strategy to address ad hoc provision of respite care across Ireland.
  • Increase the Disability Allowance by €20 weekly.
  • Introduce a Disability Tax Credit of €1560 annually.
  • Provide an emergency Wheelchair Provision Fund of €37 million.
  • Reverse all cuts and increase the budget for disability services by €50m annually.
  • Increase the budget for the Personal Assistant service by €7 million each year from 2016 -2019.
  • Invest €50m in community support packages.
  • Invest €30m in the Housing Adaptation Grant Scheme.
  • Provide accessible housing for the almost 5,000 people with disabilities on social housing waiting lists.
  • Ring fence 8%-15% of the HSE disability budget governed by service-level arrangements (SLAs) to individualised and community based models of supports
  • Ring-fence €3m annually to address the lack of care centres providing intensive neurological rehabilitation
  • Allocate 15% of the Fair Deal budget to providing nursing home and homecare services to under-35s.