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IN TOUCH

TX:Ìý 12.03.2024Ìý 2040-2100

PRESENTER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý PETER WHITE

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PRODUCER:ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý BETH HEMMINGS

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White

In Touch is at Stormont, the impressive Belfast home of the Northern Ireland Assembly, now back in full operation after two years of political stalemate when much of the work of the Assembly ground to a halt.Ìý Well back at work but with much clearing up to do of matters which affect ordinary Northern Ireland citizens.Ìý Later, we’re going to be looking at how public and community transport has been affected for visually impaired people.Ìý But one of the other unforeseen consequences has been for a group of people who’ve lost their automatic right to a free eye test, people who’ve been transferred from, what are known, as legacy benefits onto universal credit.Ìý Now the reinstatement of the free eye test and various other rights, such as free dentistry, requires legislation, which has happened in the rest of the UK but not in Northern Ireland because no legislation could be completed over the last couple of years.

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In a moment I’ll be talking to member of the legislative assembly, Andy Allen, but first, I’ve been to see Sam Baird, who’s an optometrist with 40 years’ experience in Belfast.

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Baird

The RNIB say that 50% of all conditions that cause blindness are picked up in routine eye examinations.Ìý Things like glaucomas, all the dystrophies, all of the issues where we are the first line of defence, the first line of diagnosis.Ìý I’m certain that there are people that will have significant sight loss because they’ve not had the earliest diagnosis of their visual problems.Ìý The people on universal credit now are required to fill out a 22-page form and they have to wait six to 10 weeks before they get word back as to whether they are entitled to help or not.

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White

We’re sitting in a room where eye tests would take place and I’ve got the form here.Ìý I mean just give me an idea of what this involved and what would happen if a visually impaired person were trying to fill it in.

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Baird

It’s all to do with how many people are living in the house, what funds are coming in.Ìý Oddly, it’s the same questions that are asked for the people whenever they first apply for universal credit but it all has to be repeated on the day that they come for their eye examination.

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A visually impaired person could not fill this in without significant help.

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White

I mean, presumably, people don’t know about this form.Ìý I would imagine that if they were somebody who thought they needed an eye test and were on benefits, would they have any idea that they needed to fill this form in?

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Baird

On a daily basis we have people coming in expecting a free eye examination.Ìý We give them the form, we explain what has to be done, some were walking away with the promise of returning and many of them we just do not see again.

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The actual effect in actual visual impairments is going to be down the line but the delays that we’re facing here are going to have a significant effect with dramatic consequences.

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White

Meanwhile, it’s back at Stormont where this problem will have to be solved.Ìý The question is when?Ìý Well one of those pressing for a speedy solution is Andy Allen.Ìý Andy is Ulster Unionist member of the legislative assembly for East Belfast, he’s a member of the all-party group on visual impairment and he is, himself, visually impaired.

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Allen

The fundamental answer to this is a legislative answer and I’ve already tabled a question to the Minister for Health, who so happens to be my party colleague in this instance, asking him for an update on that matter and the department said that it’s something that is actively being taken forward.Ìý So, I will be continuing to monitor and press for a swift action on this matter.

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White

What do you think they mean by swift, Andy?

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Allen

Well, what I mean by swift is I want to see this as quickly as we possibly can.Ìý I would have liked to have seen it being addressed already.Ìý In your introduction, you’d obviously rightly referred to this place being down, that we’re sitting in today, the Northern Assembly, being down and the executive have been down for two years but prior to that it was down for three years – ’17 through ’20 – they will cite and highlight covid and the difficulty and the challenges that that was presented to departments in terms of their focus and attention.Ìý But I would have liked to have seen it having been addressed back then when they were relevant.

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White

I guess the problem is that there’s quite a lot of people saying this has been neglected for two years, three years, five years, there’s a bit of a log jam I would imagine?

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Baird

There absolutely is but fundamentally, if you look at the title that I have – I’m a member of the Legislative Assembly for Northern Ireland – our main and primary function is to legislate and this is a legislative issue.Ìý So, we need the department to be working proactively behind the scenes.Ìý They’ve already done some of the groundwork on the consultation in terms of the different options, I think that consultation is perhaps outdated, so they need to bring some more of the information together and then they need to put that before the minister, for him to consider the options and ultimately then bring forward the legislation to address this problem.

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White

Just to look at this, perhaps, from a more personal point of view.Ìý I said you were visually impaired, that was as a result of a bomb explosion in Afghanistan.Ìý Does this sharpen your awareness of this as a potential problem?

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Baird

It absolutely does.Ìý When I woke up in hospital in [indistinct word) in Birmingham, I was completely blinded at the time, so I think it often helps when we have issues where there are representatives who maybe have a first hand or indirect experience of that, it certainly brings more to the table in regard to the issue.Ìý It’s not the be all and end all of matters, not every issue that comes forward will there be elected representatives or individuals who have all of the knowledge or experience of those matters but I do have a direct experience, it’s an issue that I’m hoping to see and push to have addressed.

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White

Andy Allen, thank you very much.

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Well, we asked to speak to the Minister for Health about the situation but were told he couldn’t be made available.Ìý But in a statement, the Health Department said:

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Statement Department of Health

The department acknowledges concerns raised in relation to universal credit not being an automatic passported benefit in Northern Ireland and is committed to taking forward the necessary legislation amendments to include universal credit recipients with incomes below specified thresholds.Ìý This was the subject of a consultation exercise in 2017 but it was not then possible to make the required legislative amendments due to the absence of the Northern Ireland Assembly in the first instance and then the need to respond to the pandemic.Ìý The department has commenced work to make the necessary legislative amendment for universal credit.Ìý We’re also reviewing the interim measure to see if it can be improved by reducing the additional burden placed on individuals who have migrated from a legacy benefit on to universal credit.

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The problem is that while all this drags on, people who need them may be putting off having eye tests altogether.Ìý In reality we don’t know who the victims of this are yet.Ìý If they’re unknown, they’re invisible.

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Another sector hard hit by the absence of an operating government in Northern Ireland is transport, on which many non-driving visually impaired people depend to get to work, to travel to essential health and social care services or just have a social life.Ìý The tech fair in Belfast, which we covered last week, was almost halted by the effects of a bus strike called off at the very last moment.Ìý And then there are community transport services, vital because of the very rural nature of much of Northern Ireland, affected because the increased funds they needed to run couldn’t be approved.

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Miriam Cuthbertson is a sprightly 84-year-old who relies on community transport, i.e. minibus or private cars driven by volunteers, to carry on a full life.

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Cuthbertson

I live in County Fermanagh and I live out in the country.Ìý There is a town closer to me called Irvinestown, which is four miles away, which would have Ulster bus transport and all that but I’m four miles from that town.Ìý And because I’m very visually impaired, I can’t drive.Ìý I would have to get some transport to get there and get back again home.

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White

So, the community transport system is vital to you?

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Cuthbertson

It’s extremely vital to me.Ìý It’s invaluable.Ìý I use it twice a month, every other Friday, I go to the RNIB group and I’ve been doing that for the last 10 years.Ìý I use it very frequently into my health centre in Irvinestown.Ìý I use it for other purposes as well as going to the RNIB group.

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White

Now about a year ago, users like you were warned that the service might have to be cut or even taken away.

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Cuthbertson

Oh, it was such a shock, it was just terrible.Ìý It would have had a large effect on me because it would have left me very dependent on… well, I don’t know who because my family are not in a position to do trips for me at any time of the day because they’re working.Ìý I just don’t know what would have happened.Ìý Because the Northern Ireland Assembly is up and running again, we’re hoping that everything will stay stable.Ìý I hardly want to think about it because I wouldn’t like to lose that transport.

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White

Miriam Cuthbertson.

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Well Jason Donaghy is chair of the Fermanagh Community Transport service.Ìý He came hot foot from a meeting with the Department of Infrastructure about future funding, to tell me about the struggles he’s had, during the Stormont stalemate, to sustain the service.

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Donaghy

Year on year we’ve seen a reduction in our funding, despite the need rising year on year.Ìý My worry, personally and as an organisation, is Fermanagh Community Transport, as a sector in Northern Ireland, we feel that people with visual impairment and with other disabilities are being forgotten about, especially within the rural areas.Ìý And a lot of the debate and discussion focuses on those big projects on that industrial action but community transport, which is an absolute essential lifeline, it’s not about the nice things, it’s about the things that get people into life, the basic and essential services the rest of us take for granted.Ìý The opportunities for that are diminishing year on year.

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White

Can you explain why it’s so crucial, particularly in areas like Fermanagh, where you operate?

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Donaghy

Fermanagh is a deeply rural community, in fact probably the most rural in Northern Ireland.Ìý Our public bus service, by nature of public bus services, just simply isn’t tenable or viable in a deeply rural area.Ìý Seventy-five per cent of our population live in, if you like, effectively open countryside.Ìý So, we have those folks who maybe are born or have acquired a disability or a visual impairment but we have more and more people now, as the population’s ageing, they’re ageing into what we call immobility and then disability.Ìý And in that there’s quite a number of people – macular degeneration, cataracts – and we’re seeing more of those folks coming through.Ìý If those folks need to get a simple GP appointment or hospital appointment, it’s either us or a really expensive taxi journey, which for many people can account for potentially their weekly budget or a large proportion of that.Ìý And what that means is do they heat or do they eat.

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White

Can you also explain just how much money has been taken away, how much you’ve lost in recent years?

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Donaghy

From 2016 our funding has been cut by 35% and that’s not accounting for inflation.Ìý We feel that a very urban centred view has been taken to what should be done in a rural area but it can’t because our people depend on a door-to-door service.Ìý And rural areas you couldn’t walk on the roads, this notion that you could walk to a bus stop, our roads are C roads, unclassified roads, blind bends, dips, fast travelling traffic, it’s just not safe, it’s not viable.

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White

You say the money has been on the decrease since 2016, how much has this been influenced by the fact that Stormont hasn’t been a functioning government?

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Donaghy

There’s no doubt it has had a profound impact.Ìý The one thing that any devolved administration needs are people who have an empathy and an understanding on the ground from those constituencies and the civil servants obviously, you know, they were left in a vacuum – can we do this, can we do that – there was the whole uncertainty around budgets.Ìý So, I think it’s absolutely vital that we have people in place who are listening and who are sensitive to the needs of all of the people within our community.

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White

So, how good are the signs now because Stormont is back, you have literally come to us straight from a meeting, I think something called the infrastructure committee, what are you hearing?

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Donaghy

What I’m hearing is we will hear in due course, which is a holding position.Ìý Whilst we would hope that we would get a letter of offer for our funding for the next financial year starting on the 1st April, that we would have that in advance of the 1st April is possibly quite unlikely that we will have it and that’s the situation we’re in.Ìý So, we’re also working at risk to keep the service going.Ìý But I am hopeful, I am hopeful that the people that are in the room, the civil servants, with the new minister in position and the scrutiny committee up and running that we can affect positive change but we need to be seen as a real player within the overall transport ecosystem.

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White

Jason Donaghy of the Fermanagh Community Transport Service.

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Well, someone who is in a particularly good position to talk about this is Dawn Hopper.Ìý Dawn is a community transport user, living in South Antrim, another largely rural area, north west of Belfast.Ìý She is also on the board of trustees of South Antrim’s community transport service.Ìý Now I should warn you Dawn is also battling with a sore throat she woke up with this morning.Ìý But Dawn, that apart, what’s been the effect on your service over the past few years?

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Hopper

We’ve found ourselves in an absolutely unthinkable position.Ìý At the minute the funding has been provided to us for April and May at the same level as last year but we have no guarantee at all past May.Ìý As a service member myself, uses community transport two or three times a week at least, it’s a very frightening reality that’s coming unless something is done.

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White

So, are people actually having to be turned down for transport requests?

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Hopper

So, at the moment we work a week ahead of ourselves and before covid we had 19 volunteer drivers.Ìý After covid, for a while, we only had three.Ìý We’re now up to five volunteer drivers.Ìý So, the service has come under a bit of pressure in terms of not having the same availabilities – volunteer drivers.Ìý But in terms of the funding, if it’s a school or community group we can’t give any guarantees past the end of May.Ìý Our service is not just a taxi from A to B, it’s a community event.Ìý When our drivers pick up someone, they know the person’s routine, they know who they are, there’s that human connection and interaction.Ìý I’m in the position where I live out by international airport, there’s no buses around, I’ve no trains, the nearest train to me would be in Antrim itself, which is a 20-minute drive.Ìý I’m registered severely sight impaired and a guide dog user, so I can’t drive.Ìý I rely heavily on community transport to either get me to public transport, it can get to me the shops do my shopping.Ìý Without community transport that all stops.Ìý And it’s a really isolating and daunting thought.Ìý We need government in place now that stands over funding, not in the short-term, we can’t go from month to month.Ìý So, we want them to sit down, give us a realistic budget, set out a strategy for the next three years in terms of funding and that allows us to look as well at the service and adapt it to our user needs.

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White

Dawn Hopper, with her voice just about holding out there.

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Well, we initially asked to speak to the Minister for Infrastructure but again we were told he wasn’t available but this is what the department told us in a statement:

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Statement Department for Infrastructure

The Department for Infrastructure has been underfunded by over a decade of Tory austerity and cuts.Ìý This has resulted in constrained budgets and a minimum level of services across departmental areas.Ìý In the absence of an agreed budget for the coming year, funding for rural community transport partnerships has been agreed for April and May 2024.Ìý The minister recognises the importance of community transport to those who have few if any travel options in rural areas and the value they attach to it.Ìý He will engage with executive colleagues on agreeing a budget for the incoming financial year and will be seeking support for this service.

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And we’ll continue to monitor those stories from Northern Ireland in the months ahead.

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And talking of the months ahead – some of you will have already gathered that changes are afoot in Radio 4’s schedule.Ìý As far as In Touch is concerned from Tuesday April 2nd the programme will begin at 8.45 in the evening, rather than 8.40, meaning that we now have a 15-minute slot.Ìý We will also have a repeat, something we’ve always wanted, it will go out at a quarter to six on Saturday mornings.Ìý We will continue to focus on the issues of most importance to visually impaired listeners and, of course, all those who want to know more about the subject.

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That’s it for today.Ìý From me, Peter White, producer Beth Hemmings and studio managers Andy Garvey and Kelly Young, goodbye.