DFI Pre Budget Submission 2022

Issued on September 16 2021

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Implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UN CRPD, requires coordinated action across government departments in Budget 2022. These measures are required to advance the Programme for Government UN CRPD commitments. 

• The experience of disabled people is one of poverty and social exclusion: 37.5% of those not working due to disability are at risk of poverty, and 43% live in deprivation. These rates are three times higher than for the general population.
• Ireland has the lowest employment rate for disabled people in the EU, 20% lower than the EU average of 50.8%.
• 27% of the homeless population have a disability - double the rate of the general population.

• Only about 9% of people with disabilities, c. 56,000 people, are supported through specialist disability services. 
• As of July 2021, 24,044 people were on the neurology outpatient waiting list with 11,439 people waiting over a year.

On average EU countries spend 2% of their GDP on social protection for disability. Ireland spends 0.8%, the second lowest in the EU.6 A Department of Health report estimated that a further €550m to €1000m investment in disability services by 2032 is required.

DFI’s pre-Budget submission outlines a range of actions needed for Budget 2022 across the areas of poverty, health and social care services, housing, education, employment and transport.