A call has been made at the Labour Party conference for Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore to resign.
Dublin North West delegate Gerry Kerr hit out at what he called Mr Gilmore's failure to deliver on services for the disabled and the "damage caused by broken trust".
Calling for the Labour leader's resignation, Mr Kerr said service cuts on the disabled community "will prove that he has failed on this".
A lone voice this morning at the conference in Killarney, Mr Kerr said: “Words like fair but tough, decent, protection of the vulnerable no longer have a currency or credibility when spoken by Eamon Gilmore.”
Mr Kerr, who is visually impaired, was addressing a motion calling for priority to be given in future funding allocations to redress the disproportionate burden placed on people with disabilities.
The motion also called for future policy and funding decisions to be equality-proofed to assess their impact on people with disabilities.
It also referred to disproportionate and cumulative effect that various government spending cuts had had on the disabled and the additional costs incurred by people with disabilities on transport, clothing, heating and medical aids.
He told about 250 delegates at this morning’s session on health: “I believe the requirements of this motion will not be fulfilled unless there is a change in leadership. I want to call for Eamon Gilmore to resign and I would like to also call for a rebuilding, not only of financial stability but of the damage caused by the broken trust. “
But Minister of State for disability Kathleen Lynch staunchly defended the Government’s actions on disability services.
In last year’s budget she said “right across government there was a 5 per cent cut, disability had 1.2 per cent.
“I think that was some achievement at a time when people were crying out for us to get our finances in order, considering the mess that we were left with and inherited.”
She insisted it was not the case that disability services had been disproportionately cut by successive cuts in recent budgets.
Ms Lynch said she would address the motion rather than Mr Kerr's comments which went beyond it.
She praised Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin and said without him "we would not have been successful in protecting the disability budget in the last two years".
She insisted: “We are doing our very best. I dread to think what would have happened if we were not in government and I believe that people with disabilities would be simply marginalised and put where they have been for a number of years, sort of superfluous to what society needs.”
Ms Lynch added: “I believe that people with disabilities – and that includes each and everyone of us who acquires a disability as we age – have to be central to not just what society needs but also to the contribution that people make.”
