Up to 2,000 people took part in a silent walk through Sligo this evening in protest at budget cuts at Cregg House which cares for 214 people with intellectual disabilities.
Wisdom Services, which runs the centre, has said its budget is €1.3m less than that needed to keep services at 2011 levels, a situation which is unacceptable.
At present, it says Cregg House is working without a psychology service and its social work and speech and language services are most inadequate.
Some of its residential accommodaiton is also not fit for purpose.
Wisdom says it cannot enter into a further service level agreement with the Health Service Executive on the terms offered.
The HSE has said it is disappointed that an agreement has not been signed, but that the budget cut is consistent with other disability services in the region, and it unfortunately does not have the additional funding needed to meet the deficit.
The executice has said it will, however, work with Wisdom Services to ensure that the serivce users will continue to receive the care and support they need.
This evening, Sr Jean Quinn, Provincial of the Daughters of Wisdom, said that there had been no contact from the HSE since last week and she feared the Daughters of Wisdom would have to withdraw from Cregg House, where they have been for 57 years, on safety grounds because of cuts in staff and services.
