The Government must put in place the necessary funding to progress a vital local disability service for Swords and North County Dublin, according to Social Democrats Fingal Councillor Paul Mulville.
“The Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) has plans to develop a purpose built day building providing services for adults and children with disabilities, on North Street, Swords, which will provide a vital service for Swords and the North County. However, despite initial planning permission granted in 2016, the plans have been entirely stalled due to lack of Government funding.
“The CRC, in Clontarf, is a non-residential national centre established for the care, treatment and development of children and adults with physical disabilities. In 2016, Fingal County Council granted permission for works to begin at 38-40 North Street, Swords to develop a disability services centre, with a substantive planning application to seek overall permission for the project to follow.
“The HSE Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) Dublin North City & County has now confirmed that in August 2016, CRC tendered for a building contractor to undertake the permitted site preparation works which were completed by December 2016. Since then, there has been no further movement on this vital project, and more worryingly, no further works are planned for this site.
“The CHO has further confirmed that the CRC has developed an ambitious multi-million capital development plan for Clontarf, Clondalkin and Swords, the cost of which is estimated to be in the region of €30 million, but that no funding has been identified for North Street.”
“The preliminary census figures just released show that in Dublin, Fingal had the highest natural increase with 11 persons per 1,000 of population, underlining the acute need for improved public services in our area, such as the vital disability service proposed by the CRC at North Street.”
“In 2019, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health identified deficits worth €40m in service provision for people with disabilities. Our Social Democrats Alternative Budget allocated €20m towards narrowing those gaps, with a goal of closing them completely in Budget 2023. The Department of Health’s Disability Capacity Review was published in July 2021 after a very long delay. The Disability Capacity Review has estimated that a further €550m to €1000m investment in disability services is required by 2032.
“At our recent Party Conference, the Social Democrats again committed to immediately signing the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – which allows disabled people make complaints directly to the UN when the State fails to provide services.
“The people of North County Dublin, people with disabilities and their families, are being left behind by this Government. The Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael/Green Coalition must now step up to the mark and ensure that funding is provided to the CRC to move this project forward, via a further planning application and then to move towards construction, without further delay”.
29 June, 2022
ENDS