People with disabilities held protests across the country to call for better support services. They said that the lack of proper allocation of PA has affected their independence.
According to the campaigners, they are being denied basic Human Rights due to the underfunding of PAS (Personal Assistance Services).
Disability Power Ireland (DPI) said disabled people are only getting 42 minutes a day on average with a PA.
Maryam Madani, DPI founder, said to RTE that many of those at the rally in Dublin today had to “fight tooth and nail” to get their PA hours “… it’s ridiculous, it’s a basic human right”.
DPI said: “Under Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, disabled people have a right to PAS – not home help, not care support not nursing but PAS.”
The lack of adequate support services has affected the independence of people with disabilities. In 2017, the average time that disabled people spent on PAS was 42 minutes.
The small group of demonstrators made their way from the Garden of Remembrance to the GPO saying they wanted to “retrace the route of the signatories to the Irish Republic, including the disabled Seán MacDiarmada and Joseph Plunkett, to the GPO, where the Irish Republic was declared 107 years ago”.
While the main protest march took place in Dublin, others were held in Manorhamilton in Co Leitrim, and Ennis in Co Clare.