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Driving ambition
18 July 2010 By Nicola Cooke
Kathleen McLoughlin tells a story that highlights the challenges faced by wheelchair users in Ireland. The chief executive of the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) was helping organise the organisation’s annual general meeting, held recently in a hotel with a conference theatre.
‘‘There was one disabled toilet, but 350 of my delegates had wheelchairs," said McLoughlin. ‘‘I wish businesses would open their eyes to what they are missing out on. Ten per cent of the population - 20 per cent if you add in their friends and families - cannot use their facilities because they have not made it possible for them to do so."
McLoughlin is responsible for an organisation that has 2,300 employees, more than 20,000 members and a turnover of €55 million.
Salaries of those who provide services to people with disabilities represented 86 per cent of the organisation’s costs. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the group took a funding cut of 3 per cent last year prior to further cuts this year.
However, McLoughlin, 50, said this resulted in the organisation reducing its overheads and did not result in a decrease in services to members. Last year, the IWA delivered 2.2 million hours of service to members, which was a slight increase on 2008.
This is important to McLoughlin who does not believe in excuses and has a can-do attitude. She believes that, in all situations, where there’s a will, there’s away.
Since she took up her post as chief executive of the IWA in 2006, services at the organisation have grown, despite a 5.5 per cent cut in the overall budget this year. Prior to her current position, she was in the civil service and spent more than 20 years at the Department of Education and Science, having worked up the ranks to the post of principal officer.
It was in 2004,when she became involved with the O2 Ability Awards, that she got ‘‘the bug’’.
The awards were established by Caroline Casey, founding chief executive of Kanchi, to recognise businesses for the inclusion of people with disabilities in their workplaces.
‘‘It was at that stage I realised there were things that had to be done for people with disabilities," said McLoughlin, who still sits on the awards board. ‘‘I don’t see the IWA as just a service provider - it is much more that than.
We are a representative organisation for people with disabilities, who make up one tenth of the Irish population.
We lobby constantly on anything of importance for them, and advocate for change, a lot of which still needs to come about."
The association has 57 centres across the country, four regional directors and 22 service managers.
The services it provides include assisted living; education and training, community based partnerships, resource centres; holiday centres and motoring and transport services.
Last year, more than 1.13 million hours of assisted living - where a professional personal assistant (PA) helps a person with disabilities live independently in the community - were provided.
McLoughlin stays in touch with the regional directors and services managers on a daily or weekly basis.
There is no bureaucracy. ‘‘It’s all about efficiency and getting things done," she said.
The IWA, which has its headquarters in Clontarf, Dublin, was formed after eight wheelchair users who went to the first Paralympics in Rome in 1960 realised that they had to get their issues on the agenda in Ireland.
‘‘It was formed as a community organisation for members and to this day one third of the board of directors are wheelchair-users, so we can never not focus on that.
This is the kind of place where the chief executive can get hammered because the bus for the AGM was late," she laughed.
However, as well as being responsible for the small stuff, McLoughlin has some major challenges to face.
The most pressing concern is funding and whether or not there will be further cuts to the organisation’s€55millionbudget, the bulk of which comes from the Health Service Executive (HSE), Fás and other agencies, such as Pobal.
McLoughlin fears that further cuts could have an impact on services.
‘‘We have maintained and increased services by examining every last thing we do in detail, and minimising overheads for these, to the point where overheads like buildings and transport are just 14 per cent of our costs’’ she said.
‘‘We made a decision early on to protect services, but if we lose any more funding - in a very tight-run ship - then I am worried we’ll have to look again at service provision.
There are some buses [of which the IWA has a fleet nationwide] that also need to be replaced."
Dealing with the HSE’s extensive administration network can also be a headache.
The group’s four regional directors have to deal with 32 local health offices (LHOs), which requires them to compile 32 separate service plans.
‘‘I am hugely grateful to the HSE for its fabulous contribution - without which we could do nothing," McLoughlin said. ‘‘I work with people within the executive who are very passionate and committed, but there are structural problems within the organisation.
When I budget, I plan nationwide and look at making efficiencies.
‘‘Dealing with 32 LHOs is just too many, and sometimes I can make efficiencies across boundaries - but that is not possible on their side under the current system. I believe there are plans to move these to four main regional offices and I would warmly welcome such a development."
The IWA also receives funding from other sources. Last year, it raised €1 million through the Angels fundraising campaign, church gate collections, shop collections and from donations and bequests.
The Angels campaign, where €2 angel pins are sold for one day annually, has been a success, raising €488,000 last year.
Niall Quinn, former Ireland footballer and chairman of Sunderland, and his wife, Gillian, launched the campaign in 2009.
While staffing accounts for a large part of IWA’s costs, there are also more than 3,000 people who provide non-paid services and they make a ‘‘phenomenal contribution’’ to the organisation.
‘‘I have volunteer teachers, drivers, nurses, people who paint, do gardening, take our members on holidays," McLoughlin said. ‘‘We depend hugely on these, and they give us that extra digout when we need it. It’s amazing the amount of goodwill there is in the local community towards us."
The organisation also works with and shares services with many other community organisations, such as Macra na Feirme, Foroige and senior citizens clubs.
Across the country, they pool transport and facilities and partake in outings with these organisations.
McLoughlin also believes this breaks down barriers and changes the perception of people with mobility problems: ‘‘Forget about the chair, these are people living life the way they want to."
There are always plans for more centres and an expansion of services. Currently, there are three new centres planned for Belmullet, Co Mayo, Limerick city and Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
The new centre in Belmullet will cost around €1 million, and the IWA already has a site there. However, there are prefabs there that are more than 30 years old.
‘‘It’s a horrible building, then you walk in and there’s this wonderful atmosphere," McLoughlin said. ‘‘I just need to find a way of funding it now." Something makes you think she will do just that.
In Limerick, the city centre facilities are ‘‘very poor and not adequate for the needs of service users’’, but most of the funding has been secured for this, while plans are also being drawn up for a new facility in Dungarvan.
As McLoughlin sees it, some of the biggest challenges facing the group include the provision of public transport for wheelchair users and the lack of services provided by businesses for wheelchair users.
‘‘I will give credit to the likes of Dublin Bus and Irish Rail for the progress they have made, but what do you do if you live in rural Ireland?" she said. ‘‘One of the most important things we do is provide transport to places no one else would go."
The task of finding work is also tough for wheelchair users. ‘‘It’s very difficult for our members to find employment - even though many are skilled - and getting to the workplace can be a problem too."
When asked where she would like the organisation to be on its 60th birthday, McLoughlin said she hoped it would still be strong enough that its funders realised the value for money it was achieving.
‘‘I would like not to have to fight so hard for everything, and for people to realise that being disabled is not just 9am to 5pm - the IWA is about a 24-hour quality of life," she said.
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