The motion calls for the appointment of a disability awareness trainer and assistant for the Mid-Western Health Board region. I wish to share my time with Senator Taylor-Quinn.
Adjournment Matters. - Disability Awareness Trainer.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I put this in the context of the march today to Leinster House by wheelchair users from throughout the country. Their banners and literature indicated that they are prisoners in their homes. Everyone who met them was glad they made the journey and the support from passers-by was obvious. It was a civilised and happy occasion because they showed that they are not prepared to stay at home, from now on they intend to fight for what they believe to be their just desserts.
The Strategy for Equality Towards an Independent Future which was published in 1996 stated that the physical disability sector is way behind the mentally handicapped sector — properly called people with learning difficulties — in terms of State support. We all wish that a larger slice of the cake could go towards people with learning difficulties but now wheelchair users are crying out for funding. This was discussed earlier during the Labour Party motion which Fine Gael supported.
In coming to Dublin, wheelchair users highlighted their plight, their morale was lifted and they were able to share their experiences with all those who came to support them from throughout the country. Obviously they are hoping for positive intervention from the Minister. I am looking for £12,500 for the Mid-Western Health Board region from lottery funding to be used specifically for the funding of an awareness trainer and assistant to go into the community and raise the issues of wheelchair users such as the lack of wheelchair access in cities. I encountered a woman in Limerick city the other day who wanted to buy a shirt for her son. She had to sit in her wheelchair outside Dunnes Stores and wait for the shop assistant to bring the items out for her to choose. Ultimately, her son did not wear the shirt because it was the wrong size and colour. Schools should be alerted to the needs of those who are physically unable to do the ordinary day-to-day chores we take for granted. I appeal to the Minister to make £1 2,500 available to create an awareness of this problem in the mid-west region.
I thank Senator Jackman for sharing her time with me. I fully support what she has said in relation to the demands of the Irish Wheelchair Association. Her request for the appointment of a disability awareness trainer and assistant in the mid-west region should be fully supported. The £12,500 involved is a pittance. It is important that the young people in the mid-west region be fully educated and made aware by disabled people of the major inconvenience disability can bring. They should also be made more sensitive and alert to people with disabilities to act and respond in a suitable manner. This can only be effectively done by an awareness campaign provided by disabled people themselves.
While ordinary people are in a position to bring these difficulties to the notice of school children, no one can do it better than a disabled person visiting the schools and speaking directly to the pupils who will witness at first hand what it is like to have a specific disability. I am sure the Minister is aware of the importance of instilling in children at an early age an awareness and empathy with people with disabilities. Many people who do not have disabilities do not fully comprehend the extra needs and pressures of these people until they come in contact with them. Such awareness would lead us to educate future generations to be more sensitive and react more positively towards people with disabilities. I support Senator Jackman's request for the provision of this service in the Mid-Western Health Board region and I hope the Minister will respond positively.
I thank Senators Jackman and Taylor-Quinn for raising this matter on the Adjournment. On behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Cowen, I am glad of this opportunity to clarify the position regarding the making available of grants from national lottery funding.
Every year grants from discretionary lottery funds are made both by the Minister and by health boards. In each case the Minister's policy is that such grants should be for projects which will be completed within a reasonable period and should not give rise to significant ongoing revenue implications. The Senators will appreciate that if projects involving ongoing revenue implications were funded from the lottery, it would mean either that the lottery funds would, in whole or in part, be permanently committed or that health boards would have to fund the revenue costs in future years. Obviously, neither of these procedures is desirable.
The application for a grant from national lottery funds mentioned by the Senators is for two permanent heads of staff to provide a service to schools in the Mid-Western Health Board region. As this calls for ongoing revenue funding, it does not meet the basic criterion for a lottery grant which I have outlined.
Priorities for the allocation of funding available for the development of services for people with disabilities are decided by health boards in consultation with the local co-ordinating committees for mental handicap services or physical and sensory disability services. This is the appropriate means of funding the sort of service development with which the lottery application in question is concerned.
The Minister notes that the application refers to a service to schools and may, therefore, be more appropriate to his colleague, Deputy Martin, Minister for Education and Science. The Minister understands that the agency concerned is in discussion with that Department about the matter. The agency is also in discussion with the
Mid-Western Health Board about the provision of disability awareness training for health board staff.
To summarise, the position is that the project in question is a worthwhile one but a national lottery grant is not the appropriate means of funding it. As I have mentioned, the agency concerned is in discussion with both the Department of Education and Science and the Mid-Western Health Board about the proposed service and the Minister is satisfied that it will be accorded the appropriate level of priority for funding.
On a point of clarification, I have here two letters, one from the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Martin, and the other from the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Cowen, in relation to the request from the Mid-Western Health Board. The reply from Deputy Cowen thanks Deputy Martin for the letter and states that the application is one of many still under consideration for a grant from his Department. The letter from Deputy Martin states that the application for lottery funding is under consideration and he will write as soon as he has further news.
I cannot allow the Senator to discuss the matter further.
The Minister might take this back because there seems to be a conflict between his reply and the——
I am sure the Minister will be prepared to speak with the Senator later.