Brendan Smith calls for in-person day services to be reinstated at the Irish Wheelchair Association in Cavan

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Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith has called for in-person day services to be reinstated at the Irish Wheelchair Association in Cavan

The Cavan-Monaghan TD said additional funding is needed from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for the organisation to enable it to operate more efficiently.

Deputy Smith said: “There is a very urgent need to have in-person day services restored at the Irish Wheelchair Association’s, IWA, centre in Cavan town. Recently and, unfortunately, the day services ceased due to staffing shortages. This has caused understandable annoyance and concern to service users, their families, and the IWA personnel at local level. These services are of critical importance to users. The service has been reduced to an outreach-only model with Zoom meetings, online activities and visits to homes. Lack of pay parity for section 38 and 39 organisations is an issue.

“On becoming aware of the imminent cancellation of day services, I made a strong request to the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities and the HSE to give additional support to the IWA to deal with the current difficulties. I know from the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, that in the meantime, there has been engagement between the HSE and the IWA. The bottom line is that we need in-person services restored as quickly as possible with appropriate State support.

Minister Roderic O’Gorman, in response to a parliamentary question, said the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) submitted a funding application to the HSE on Saturday 13th of April.

“The validation process is at an advanced stage and the HSE will begin issuing funds to IWA this week. These funds are in addition to the Interim payment already issued to IWA earlier this year, as part of this process,” he said.

“I have also been informed that the IWA has recently undertaken a recruitment campaign to fill its vacant positions, in Cavan especially.

“In addition to this, under the leadership of Minister Anne Rabbitte, an Interdepartmental Workforce Steering Group has been established focused on identifying solutions and directing efforts to address workforce supply needs in all sectors of Disability Services.”  

 ENDS 

3/05/2024