The Government is being urged to focus on the needs of people with physical disabilities in Budget 2017, which is due to be announced next month.

The call comes from the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA), which represents and supports people with physical and sensory disabilities nationwide. It has just launched its pre-Budget submission, which highlights a number of serious issues facing those affected.

Currently, the largest service that the IWA provides to around 1,900 people around the country is the Personal Assistant Service. Personal assistants assist people in their homes and communities and this can improve quality of life in a number of ways, such as increasing access to education and employment.

According to the IWA, an additional 500,000 personal assistant hours are ‘urgently required', so that those with disabilities ‘are not isolated in their own homes or left in emergency situations'.

"Without a serious commitment to increase funding for personal assistant hours, people with physical disabilities will remain isolated in their own homes, unable to take up education and employment opportunities or contribute to their communities in a meaningful way," commented IWA chief executive, Rosemary Keogh.

The pre-Budget submission also highlighted the fact that people with disabilities have a much higher financial burden than their able-bodied peers, due to issues such as medical needs, housing requirements, mobility issues and reduced family income.

It highlighted, for example, that transport costs can be much higher for people with disabilities, particularly those in rural areas. However previous budgets have introduced cuts to things like the motorised transport grant and the mobility allowance, which has had a ‘devastating impact on many individuals'.

To this end, the IWA would like to see the introduction of a Cost of Disability Allowance, along with the promised increases to Disability Benefit, Disability Allowance, Carer's Benefit and Carer's Allowance.

Meanwhile, the association is also calling for more suitable and accessible housing for people with disabilities. Some 4,000 people with disabilities are currently on social housing lists and the homeless crisis is an ongoing reality for many due to a lack of wheelchair accessible housing in local authority areas nationwide.

The IWA has insisted that the Government must address this crisis and include people with physical disabilities in all social housing policies. It is calling for 10% of all integrated mainstream social housing units to be made wheelchair accessible.

Budget 2017 is set to be announced on October 11. For more information on the IWA, click here