The Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) has warned that many of its resource centres around the State face closure because of Government changes to the Community Employment Scheme.
The association claims that its one-time 417-strong workforce will be cut in half this year because employees are being forced to resign their positions.
Staff at the 46 disability resource centres working under the community employment scheme are permitted to stay in their jobs for a maximum of three years.
Yesterday the IWA held a protest rally outside Leinster House. Protesters gathered at Parnell Square, and made their way through the city centre through Kildare Street, where they were met by a number of TDs including the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, and Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny.
IWA national advocacy officer Mr Olan McGowan said wheelchair users in rural areas would be worse hit if centres close. He said some centres in the midlands were most under threat.
"In Dublin you have practical things like a bus service with wheelchair access onto buses but in rural areas you've nothing like that so the service that we can offer is very valuable.
"If centres close some people won't get out of their house from one end of the week to the other. When staff leave after their three-year period we are finding them virtually impossible to replace. It also means that we have highly- skilled people who are moving on to social welfare. It's very hard for wheelchair users to get jobs at the best of times and when they are that bit older it can be a very serious problem."
The Government had promised to mainstream the positions of anybody working in community employment in the health sector in a move that would have made the positions permanent. Numbers were to be ring-fenced at March 2002 levels, meaning the centres would be guaranteed 417 part-time workers each doing 19½ hours per week.
However, that plan has now been abandoned. And because unemployment levels are so low the centres are finding it impossible to recruit new workers to fill positions vacated by those whose three-year term has expired. The IWA claims that lifting the three-year cap would resolve the problem in the short term and would not cost the Exchequer any more than the current salaries of the workers.
