Having canvassed people who highlighted the Before We Die campaign, Cllr Thomas Welby, Independent candidate in the Galway West by-election is calling on the Government to radically increase its funding for residential places for adults with intellectual disability.
The Independent councillor said that too many parents, especially those of advancing years, were bearing a huge burden looking after their children, and living in a constant state of anxiety over who would look after them when they die.
He said that figures from the 2022 Census showed that there were more than 5,000 adults and children with an intellectual disability in Galway, 1,574 in the city and 3,664 in the rest of the county.
More than half of adults with an intellectual disability in Ireland live in the family home, with many of those supported by older parents working as carers, according to a 2021 study, Cllr Welby pointed out.
“I know of parents in their seventies and eighties who are fearful of what the future holds, and are desperately worried about who will care for their son or daughter when they pass on," he said.
“We simply do not have enough residential places for adults with an intellectual disability in this country and it’s shameful that years of underfunding and poor planning has left us in this situation.”
Councillor Welby said that figures from Before We Die, the parents’ lobby group, showed that 1,500 adults with intellectual disability in Ireland live with family carers who are aged 70 and over – and of those, 450 adults are cared for by parents aged over 80.
“We are putting a terrible burden on these people, many of whom find it really difficult to manage looking after an adult with extensive care needs".
“It’s totally unfair that, at a time of their lives when they should be able to take things a little easier, they instead have to struggle to look after someone 24 hours round the clock.
“And I know from meeting people in this situation that the big question for them is what will happen if their own health deteriorates to such an extent that they can no longer do this … and what will happen to their children after they are gone.”
Cllr Welby said that a Government Disability Capacity Review in 2021 estimated that the number of adults with intellectual disability requiring specialist disability services would increase by 25 per cent between 2018 and 2032.
“That review forecast that 4,000 or more additional residential places would be needed by 2032 to address backlogs and population aging, and while the number of places has increased, it’s nowhere near the number required.
“The Government needs to urgently act now to increase funding and provide the number of residential places needed. We owe that to the aging parents of adults with intellectual disability who have spent their lives looking after them,” the Independent councillor added.
