The Government has been urged to ensure there is much greater accountability over the way it provides more than €1 billion in funding to voluntary groups for disability services.
Donal Toolan, outgoing director of the Forum of People with Disabilities, said there were major concerns that the benefits of funding increases for services were not being felt by people with disabilities.
"While substantial funding has been going into disability, there has been no increase in the level of accountability on the part of service providers," he said.
Mr Toolan was speaking in advance of a conference yesterday to mark the end of the Forum of People with Disabilities after 17 years of campaigning and providing a voice for people with disabilities. After significant progress in bringing disability onto the political agenda, members of the group say it is time for a new era of targeted campaigns on specific issues.
There is also the possibility of a broad-based coalition being formed to help oversee Ireland's implementation of the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Social policy analyst Dr Pauline Conroy told the conference that in recent years some key services for people with disabilities have worsened, while core parts of the 2005 Disability Act have not been implemented.
"People with disabilities have fewer stakes in the capital structure of the society. This, combined with poor educational opportunities makes for disability as an impoverishing factor. This is confirmed by analysis of principal economic status of persons who are sick or disabled in European Union studies of living standards," she said.
Dr Conroy said a freeze on HSE recruitment meant that hundreds of speech and language therapists who were needed could not be recruited.
A promised code of practice for sheltered occupational services has also not been implemented despite evidence of exploitation of disabled workers. She said the Government should review the overall impact of disability legislation next year to assess its effectiveness.
Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly encouraged people with disabilities to complain to her office where they feel let down by a public body.
The conference was organised by the Forum for People with Disabilities and the Disability Equality Specialist Support Agency.
