The Health Service Executive (HSE) provides arange of assisted living services including Personal Assistant services to support individuals to maximise their capacity to live full and independent lives.
In 2011, a total of 1.68 million personal assistant/home support hours were provided to 11,571 persons with physical and/or sensory disability. Although the funding allocated to disability services has been cut by 3.7%, the HSE aims to maintain this level of service in 2012. Service efficiencies will be achieved through a process of negotiation with service providers around the unit cost of providing the service rather than reducing the number of hours or the pay of personal assistants.
At this point in time, the HSE is not aware of any service provider that has applied reductions in pay or hours to personal assistants who provide support to persons with disabilities.