Our member organisations include: Acquired Brain Injury Ireland, Cheshire Ireland, Chime, Enable Ireland, Irish Wheelchair Association,Rehab Group and Vision Ireland.
Across our member organisations, over 8,000 dedicated staffprovide key clinical and social services to over 40,000 individuals and their families every year. Collectively, NDSA organisations manage almost €400m onbehalf of the HSE in providing essential and valued services across Ireland.
We work across the widest range of community and social care services – Children’s Disability Network Teams, education, training, personal assistance, community day care, employment, residential, respite and rehabilitation, and work with and for people across all ages, abilities and regions.
The services provided by NDSA members are essential to ensuring the quality of life of those who receive them, providing dignity and enabling independence.
The State relies heavily on our sector to deliver vital services on their behalf to support people with disabilities, yet there is no dedicated government policy or strategy that defines our responsibilities in delivering these essential services. Instead, we are guided by broad, general policies. This lack of a clear framework has directly contributed to a funding crisis in disability services.
To date there has been a clear mismatch between overarching Government policy on disability and the level of funding available for implementation and achieving the commitments and targets set out in Government strategies. The first budget of the new Government must therefore reflect commitments made in the Programme for Government to prioritise disability matters.