This article is from page 7 of the 2005-09-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 7 JPG
CLARE woman Lottie McClure has been re-appointed to the board of the National Disability Authority (NDA).
A native of Shannon, Mrs McClure will work with the statutory body that advises the Government on the co-ordination and development of policy on disability.
She has already warned about the dan- gers of funding for the disabled being ab- sorbed by administrators.
“Unless proper structures are put in
place, standards for services are introduced and services are co-ordinated across all Government Departments, there is a real danger that the bulk of this money could be absorbed by administrators and service providers instead of making a real impact on the daily lives of people with disabili- ties” she said last week.
Due to a streamlining strategy, the board of the NDA has been cut from 23 to 13 members. Mrs McClure believes this will allow the organisation to adopt a more “fo- cused approach”.
Along with transport and education the issue of personal assistance grants for people with disabilities is a major issue in ETc
“There is great demand for personal as- sistants but unfortunately there is an is- sue with funding and this is something I hope to address through my work with the board” said Mrs McClure who is also involved with the Clare Branch of People with Disabilities in Ireland.