People with Disabilities to show Government Red Card at Protest next Wednesday

There are 600,000 people with disabilities, accounting for 13% of the population, but people with disabilities continue to be ignored, isolated and bear an unfair brunt of economic cutbacks.

But on 21^st November people with disabilities and their families will say NO MORE and will give Government a RED CARD at a national protest in Dublin.

What: National Disability Rights Protest

When: Wednesday 21^st November, 2pm

Where: Central Bank, Dublin 2, with a march to Leinster House

The march, which is being coordinated by the Disability Rights Coalition*, will call on Government to fulfil disability related promises made in the 2011 Programme for Government and will call for equal rights for people with disabilities.

People with disabilities and their families from all over Ireland will be attending this protest.

Among the promises in the 2011 Programme Government were:

• Maintain social welfare rates;
• Introduce independent inspection of disability services;
• Introduce modern decision making law to replace the 1871 Lunacy Act;
• Give people with disabilities greater control over the services they receive;

These promises, and more, were made by the present Government when we were fully aware of the extent of our economic problems. There can be no excuses why these promises are not being kept.

People with disabilities and those who support their rights, will give Government a RED CARD on the 21^st November for not keeping their promises.

*The Disability Rights Coalition (DRC) is made up of a number of organisations, but the DRC is only facilitating this protest and there will be no organisations banners at the  march – this march is about individuals with disabilities and their families coming together to support each other in demanding greater equality.

Go to www.disabilityrightscoalition.com  for more information.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

National:

• Siobhán Kane/Paddy Connolly, Inclusion Ireland, 01-8559891
• Suzy Byrne, Disability Activist, 086-3848405
• Lorraine Dempsey, Special Needs Parents Association, 087-7741917
• Pat Clarke, Down Syndrome Ireland, 087-2634900

Regional:

• Dublin – Suzy Byrne – 086-3848405

• Northeast – Pat Clarke (Louth) – 087-2634900
• Northwest – Máirín McCartney (Donegal) – 087-2452160
• West – Eamon Walsh (Galway) – 087 0931020
• West – Angela Locke Reilly (Mayo) – 0906-486939/085-1194041
• Midwest – Kathryn O’Shea (Clare) – 087 6291490
• South – Colm O’Sullivan (Cork) – 087-7790509
• Southeast – Lorraine Dempsey (Wicklow) – 087-7741917
• Midlands – Edel Shaw (Laois) – 087 2339572

• Taken from Central Statistics Office’s Profile 8 Our Bill of Health – Health, Disability and Carers in Ireland
• Statistics taken from 2011 Census
• Available online at: http://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2011reports/census2011profile8ourbillofhealth-healthdisabilityandcarersinireland/
• Published 01 November 2012

Numbers:

• 595,335 people with a disability, equalling 13% of the population

Geography:

• Limerick city had the highest rate of disability with 18.2%;
• Cork 17.7%;
• Waterford 15.3%;
• Dublin 14.9%;
• Galway city has a lower than average incidence of disability with 11.9%;

Education:

• For people with a disability aged 15 to 49, 16.3% had completed no higher than primary level education compared with 5.1% of the general population
• Secondary level education was the highest level completed by 22.3% compared with 15.1 per cent of non-disabled;

Employment:

• There were 162,681 persons with a disability in the labour force accounting for 30% – this compares to 61.9% for the overall population;
• Of people aged 15 and over with a disability 20.7% were at work, compared to 50.1% of the overall population aged 15 and over;

Type of Disability

• 1.1% of the population were blind or had a sight related disability;
• 2% were deaf or had a hearing related disability;
• 5.3% had a difficulty with basic physical activities;
• 1.3% have an intellectual disability;
• Within the figures for intellectual disability, the greatest incidence is amongst 10-14 year old males with almost 4,000 persons, (more than double that of females at 1,900) in this age group;
• A difficulty with learning, remembering or concentrating was experienced by 3% of the population;
• 2.1% had a psychological or emotional condition;
• 6%have a disability connected with pain, breathing or another chronic illness or condition;

Carers

• 187,112 persons or 4.1% of the total population were providing unpaid assistance to others in April 2011;
• Of these carers 114,113 (61%) were women and 72,999 (39%) men. It also showed that 4,228 children aged under 15 years were engaged in providing care to others, accounting for 2.3 per cent of all carers;

The National Demonstration on 21st November calls for full implementation of these promises.

The promises have been ‘carded’ according to progress: red means no progress; yellow means some progress; and green means substantial progress.

The full Programme for Government is available HERE

Download the Programme for Government promises

Adobe Reader can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

When: Wednesday 21^st November, 2pm

Where: Central Bank, Dublin 2, with march to Leinster House

A march supporting the rights of people with disabilities will take place on Wednesday 21^st November at 2pm in Dublin.

People with disabilities, their families, and all those supporting the rights of people with disabilities, will assemble at the Central Bank on Dame Street at 2pm, before marching to Leinster House.

The march will call on Government to fulfil disability related promises made in the 2011 Programme for Government and will call for equality and rights for people with disabilities.

Among the promises in the 2011 Programme were Government were:

• Maintain social welfare rates;
• Introduce independent inspection of disability services;
• Introduce modern decision making law to replace the 1871 Lunacy Act, to allow Ireland to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
• Move a proportion of funding to a personal budget model so people with disabilities have greater control over the services they receive;

These promises, and more, were made by the present Government when we were fully aware of the extent of our economic problems.

There can be no excuses why these promises are not being kept.

People with disabilities and those who support their rights, will give Government a RED CARD on the 21^st November for not keeping their promises.

The Disability Rights Coalition is made up of a number of organisations, but the DRC is only facilitating this protest and there will be no organisations banners at the  march – this march is  about individuals with disabilities and their families coming together to support each other in demanding greater equality.

Go to www.disabilityrightscoalition.com  for more information.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

• Siobhán Kane, Inclusion Ireland, 01-8559891
• Suzy Byrne, Disability Activist, 086-3848405
• Lorraine Dempsey, Special Needs Parents Association, 087-7741917