Tonight I’ve been delving into the book of estimates released today in addition to the budget which I was tweeting throughout the day.
Isn’t it just miraculous when lots of agencies that deal with peoples lives and provide services directly to people are having their budgets slashed that one – the National Disability Authority (NDA) – has had it’s budget increased by 23%. Yes thats a near 6 times increase in percentage terms of the cut (-4.1%) that all the disabled people will have to take who are in receipt of social welfare.
The disability service budget in the Department of Environment and Local Government has been cut by 32%.
The Equality Tribunal has had a cut of 8% but the Equality Authority has been untouched after it’s 43% cut last year. Oh we should be grateful for small mercies I hear you say, well we could if people actually received any assistance and these organisations weren’t politically addled or kneecapped.
The HSE has had cuts of 5% across the board and this will mean cuts to all disability services that it funds for the 400,000 disabled people in the state. The budget for disabled people and children’s dental care has been cut by over 33%. A 23% increase in the budget of the NDA – surely this must be a typo??
I await the huge increase in dialogue with people with disabilities that surely must occur now that the NDA has so much extra money! I may be kept waiting.
Maybe they could assist all the disabled people paying huge amounts out of their disability allowance for residential services and now for their medication needed to keep them alive from their reduced Disability Allowance.
There are surely other anomalies in the book of estimates vs. the budget. However I can’t wait to see the strategic plan for the greatly endowed agency which provides advice to the state on disability issues.
The words Un and Real come to mind. Will any journalist pick up on this extraordinary development?
And who’s baby/ quango is this?
That’s it “provide advice to the state on disability issues”.. they anticipate needing that much advice on avoiding/spinning the real issues?
Advice? I’d love to see what advice the NDA gives.
Perhaps this “advice” would be a resemblance in quality to that given by whatever cretin advised Harney that patients could choose which pills to take so at to minimise their med bill? (Harney too scared to tell the medics to stop prescribing, etc. directly). Back to watching the new Star Trek DVD until anger subsides…
Irish Election » Budget 2010: Bucking the Trend // Dec 10, 2009 at 13:11
[...] looking for a lobbyist, it looks like Angela Kerins is your person. Amazing stuff from Suzy over on Maman Poulet about the fate of the NDA budget which has enjoyed a generous increase. Looks like good times for [...]
Fascinating stuff. The acceptable face of equality, no less. Didn’t you know that addressing disability discrimination is all about plush offices, research papers and academic conferences? Ask any parent of a disabled child who the NDA is and what difference it has made to their quest for equality of opportunity and meaningful inclusion of their children. Authority on what now???
Disgraceful, thank you MP for highlighting this.
Peter Donegan landscaping Weblog » The Irish [green] Budget 2010 // Jun 14, 2010 at 14:22
[...] an economics weblog [as much as I love the subject] and also that a much greater insight into that can be found over at The Irish Election site amongst the many I read [...]