Some organisations providing services for people with disabilities have warned they may have to delay making payments to the Revenue Commissioners or pension companies due to financial difficulties.
A number of service providers are understood to be deeply unhappy that applications for special funding – known as a cash acceleration – were turned down by the Health Service Executive in December.
The financial difficulties being experienced by some organisations come as Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who is set to become taoiseach this week, said his new government would put a focus on the disability sector.
It is understood that one organisation – Stewart’s Care in west Dublin – has warned senior health service figures that if additional funding is not provided it could face a financial deficit of more than €2.5 million. Some sources say other organisations in the sector could face deficits of close to €10 million.
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Stewart’s Care provides services to about 2,000 people with an intellectual disability. It is understood to have advised health service management that the current financial situation could leave it facing difficulties in running services.
The Irish Times reported last month that public voluntary hospitals were to share in a €200 million financial bailout to avoid an end-of-year financial crisis. This came after five of the biggest Dublin hospitals warned they expected to be unable to pay all staff in full before Christmas.
The chairs and chief executives of St James’s, the Mater, St Vincent’s, Tallaght and Beaumont hospitals said in a letter to the HSE in November that they were collectively facing a financial shortfall of more than €100 million.
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Three organisations providing disability services – St John of God Brothers, St Michael’s House and Muiríosa – received money from this €200 million fund. However, a number of others maintained their applications for cash acceleration payments were rejected last month. Some argued they had they had been led to believe the HSE would provide them with additional money.
In the absence of additional funding, it is understood some have warned they will face having to delay making payments to Revenue or pension providers. Directors on the voluntary boards which run some organisations are said to be concerned that any such action could leave them exposed legally under tax, pension and company law.
The crisis centres, in part, on funding for what are known as “twilight payments” for some staff as well as due to inflationary pressures on costs.
Twilight payments of time and one sixth for nurses and other staff for working between 6pm and 8pm in the evening were abolished as part of cutbacks more than a decade ago but were restored as part of a national agreement in 2021. But some disability organisations contend the cost was never included in their core annual budget and has had to be negotiated each year.
The HSE at the weekend released a list of voluntary health sector organisations which received money from the €200 million fund. However, it did not provide a breakdown of the amounts paid to each. It did not comment on how many organisations had had applications rejected for accelerated or additional funding.
Allocations were “based on the assessed requirements of each organisation in order to address year end cash pressures whilst also taking cognisance of the overall cash funding provided by Government to the HSE in 2024″, it added.
Among hospitals that received additional money from fund were St James’s, the Mater, St Vincent’s, Beaumont, Tallaght, the Rotunda, Children’s Health Ireland, the Eye and Ear, St Michael’s in Dún Laoghaire, St John’s in Limerick, the Incorporated Orthopaedic in Clontarf, Leopardstown Park and Our Lady’s Hospice.
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