Positive meeting over future of Dún Laoghaire’s NCBI office

THE NCBI has said a “positive meeting” was held last week with the the HSE in regards to the future of the NCBI Dun Laoghaire Office.

A spokesperson for the NCBI said It was agreed by both parties that the service was much valued locally and that every effort should be made to continue with a local service to local people with sight loss.

Last week protesters gathered in Dún Laoghaire to highlight local concerns that the National Council for the Blind Resource Centre was facing closure.

The protest was organised by members of the blind community in the town as well as from further afield.

They gathered for the demonstration outside the NCBI offices on Clarence Street, which they claim is threatened with closure due to “lack of service users”.

Richard Boyd Barrett TD and People Before Profit Dún Laoghaire Rathdown councillors Melisa Halpin, Dave O’Keeffe and Hugh Lewis joined the protestors to show their support for the NCBI and the many people who need to avail of the service. 

One local service user, Michael Griffith, from Shankill, said the threatened closure of the centre would pose considerable difficulties for locals and other Southsider.

“This affects many people who use the service,” he said. “If it closes, we will be forced to go out to Tallaght or Drumcondra to use the services there.

“As you can imagine, this poses enormous challenges for the visually impaired, as the journey is confusing.

“In either direction it could take over an hour and a half on public transport to go to either location. I’ve been coming here to Dun Laoghaire for over five years and I would be devastated if it closed.

“But I can assure you, we’re not going to go away until this is resolved and we are getting great support from across the board and from people from all walks of life.”

Last week the NCBI said they and the HSE were fully committed to continually reviewing the value for money of all HSE supported services and ensuring that the needs of people with sight loss are fully met either directly by the HSE or through contracted bodies such as NCBI. 

“The NCBI will be opening a new purpose-built and fully accessible centre in Tallaght Cross in January 2019,” the NCBI said. “This €800,000 investment funded solely by the NCBI through fundraised income thanks to the public’s generosity, will see the NCBI provide a greater level of service to people with sight loss across south Dublin and in neighbouring counties.

“Our new Tallaght centre will act as our centre of excellence on the south side for all our staff and service delivery.

“It has been agreed that NCBI would submit a revised proposal to CHO6 which will capture the growing need for services in Dún Laoghaire and the issues with the current provision and accessibility of services.

“Following consultation with the HSE, the NCBI have agreed to revisit their decision on the future utilisation of the Dún Laoghaire Office facility and to implement highly effective service delivery there and across South Dublin.

This approach will be kept under constant review.”