Six govt departments to unveil disability spending plans
The Government is due to unveil spending plans for the disability sector later today on foot of Minister for Finance Brian Cowen's budget commitments.
Mr Cowen announced last December that the Government would make €900m available to the sector between 2006 and 2009.
Today, six separate government departments - Finance, Justice, Communications, Environment, Education and Social and Family affairs - are due to outline how they plan to spend the money.
Labour Party TD Kathleen Lynch has accused the Government of unnecessarily delaying the announcement in an effort to control how the media portrays it.
She says the plans were agreed months ago and there was no reason not to publish them while the Dáil was sitting.
"It's not about putting the sectoral plans in place. It's not about giving a proper service to people with disability," she said. "It's about making the Taoiseach look good."
