According to a lobby group for people with intellectual disabilities, next week's Budget estimates give the Government an opportunity to show it wants to vindicate the rights of people with disabilities.
Meanwhile, the Disability Federation of Ireland says the morale of families will collapse if they do not see a significant first instalment of a five-year investment programme to eliminate the backlog in services.
September's launch of the long-delayed Disability Bill did not include an estimation of costs.
However, the Government promised to unveil a separate Disability Strategy with ring-fenced, multi-annual funding to significantly improve services for people with disabilities.
Today, the National Association for People with an Intellectual Disability said that over the next three years, the Government must invest €120 million to provide 1,500 new places and end waiting lists for residential services.
The money would also provide 600 extra respite places for hard-pressed families who need a break from caring.
NAMHI's President, Stephen Kealy, said his association expected the Government to put in place roll-over funding on a secure basis for people with disabilities that would far outlive the three Budgets remaining to this Government.
At least 14 TDs, half of them from Fianna Fáil, attended NAMHI's news conference in a Dublin hotel underlining the growing influence of the country’s disabled people and also the tense atmosphere facing into the estimates.
