This article is from page 14 of the 2013-06-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
A NEW Clare group, founded earlier this year to campaign for the right of disabled people, will not be running a candidate in next year’s local elections. The Clare Center for Independent Living (CIL) say that their primary goal is to “protect and reclaim” the identity of disabled people in Clare and to speak out when other disabled organisation – which are funded by the government and Health Service Executive (HSE) are unable to represent the needs of the people.
The group came together in May of this year when the Department of Health announced plans to scrap a number of disabled transport scheme. After winning this battle follow- ing a government u-turn last week, the group have decided to formally come together as the CIL – to provide disabled people with an ongoing voice in the county. “We recognise that disabled people need the support each other to ensure that all the years of campaigning, developing and understanding of independent living and trying to have a rightful place in society is not lost as a result of the recession and other practices,” said Anne Marie Flanagan of Clare CIL.
“In Clare disabled people do not have a formal voice locally in how the HSE and the Local Authority spends the funding directly relating to their services, separate to the organisations who are in receipt of the funding. We need to be able to ask the strapped for cash HSE how the budget is being spend and say how we feel it can be improved. We are the service users, who will do everything to maximise the funding, to have the best outcomes for our lives. We can’t do that currently.”
The primary objectives of Clare CIL are to promote independent living and to promote the freedom of choice and self-determination of people with disabilities.
Ms Flanagan confirmed that there will not be a CIL candidate in next years local election – she did say that, should the organisation ever decide to put forward a candidate for election, it would most likely be to the Dail and not to Clare County Council. There are an estimated 9,000 disabled people living in Clare – the quote for being election in Clare in the 2011 general election was 11,500.