Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 23 May 1995

Vol. 453 No. 3

Written Answers. - Disabilities Schemes Funding.

Mary Wallace

Question:

166 Miss M. Wallace asked the Minister for Social Welfare the amount and nature of all spending within his Department and by bodies under his Department's aegis on schemes specifically directed towards meeting the needs of people with disabilities. [9387/95]

Minister for Social Welfare (Proinsias De Rossa)

My Department operates a number of schemes of grants for voluntary and community organisations and while none of these are specifically directed at people with disabilities, they are open to groups involving people with disabilities on the same basis as other disadvantaged communities or groups of people. Details of all grants paid under these various schemes in 1993 and 1994 have been placed in the Oireachtas Library for the information of Members.

The Deputy may wish to note that the Department of Health has responsibility for funding of voluntary organisations providing social services appropriate to the health services. This includes organisations dealing with people with disabilities.

In relation to the Combat Poverty Agency, the position is that the agency has no scheme or grants specifically directed towards meeting the needs of people with disabilities. A very limited number of self help groups of people with disabilities would be funded each year under the agency's small grants schemes; for example, the 1994 figure totalled £4,200.

There are a number of illness and disability related programmes administered by my Department. Details of the number of recipients at end December 1994 and expenditure in 1994 are as set out in the following tabular statement:

Programme	Number of Recipients	Expenditure
Disability Benefit	41,869	165
Invalidity Pension	40,226	171
Carer's Allowance	5,056	14
Injury Benefit	1,594	6
Disablement Benefit	8,646	30
Blind Person's Pension	2,458	8
Total	99,849	394

I stress that many of these programmes would apply to persons with short term illnesses who would not be persons with disabilities as this is commonly understood. In the absence of a practical definition of disability, it is not possible to provide a breakdown of these numbers.

Responsibility for disabled person's maintenance allowance is being transferred to my Department. Expenditure on this programme in 1994 was over £100 million in respect of some 31,000 recipients.