Disability campaigners are calling on the Government to reform how funding is provided to the sector.

The issue is set top the agenda at a health conference later today.

Down Syndrome Ireland and Inclusion Ireland say that the current ‘one size fits all’ system means that many people with special needs lose out.

Pat Clarke, the CEO of the Down Syndrome Ireland, said: “There is no choice in what is available to people with disabilities once they go into adult services.

“And when you think that almost three quarters of the funding that goes to the disability sector, goes to day care centres and residential centres, there is no choice and there is nothing there for individual aspirations of what the individual wants.”