| Company Registration Number: |
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C524496 |
Charitable Status Number: |
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20251 |
Business Advice: |
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Mr. Mike O' Reilly, Mob: (087) 2570 923 E-mail: mikeoreilly@orbs.ie |
Accountants: |
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Tom Carolan & Co. Mobile: (087) 121 6345
E-mail: tcaccounts@eircom.net
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Current Company Board of Directors
Dear Member,
It is that time of year again when we the Board of Directors must inform you as members about our activities in the year just gone by.
Independent People with Disabilities held a total of four meetings in 2017 including our Annual General Meeting which was held in the Shamrock Lodge hotel, Clonown Road, Athlone, Co. Westmeath on Thursday 24th August, 2017.
We have been very much involved in campaigning for access issues to be addressed in Mullingar and in Athlone.
For instance, in Athlone with the introduction of the new one-way system which comes into effect from Thursday 15th February, 2018. We have approached our local political representatives in a meeting we had with them in the Westmeath County Council Chamber in The Civic Offices in Church Street, Athlone and asked them to ensure more parking spaces are allocated for parking for people with disabilities and the extension of the existing ones to allow access and egress for these people. We hope to see a vast improvement on this issue when the new town layout is completed which is due to be completed by Christmas 2018.
Mark Ahern, our chairperson is involved in an exciting accessibility project in Mullingar. It is hoped that major progress will be achieved shortly.
We have made representations on issues relating to accessibility on trains with management of Iarnród Éireann as we had been approached by people with disabilities locally and we have acquired copies of the new guide to using the DART as advertised by Iarnród Éireann on the RTE news on Monday 29th January, 2018. If anyone wants one, please feel free to call in to our office at 96 Seán Costello Street and we would only be too happy to give one to you.
The office is running smoothly we have a steady flow of people coming in looking for their entitlements to be re-instated, people come in also looking for information on different disabilities.
Annual General Meeting 2017
On Thursday 24th August, 2017 Independent People with Disabilities held their A.G.M. in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, Clonown Road, Athlone. Councillor Aengus O’ Rourke (Mayor of Athlone) was in attendance and he opened our meeting and offered his support to us whenever we needed it.
Mark Ahern gave the Chairperson’s Address. He spoke briefly about the various committees which Independent People with Disabilities are currently involved with through participation by our Vice-chairperson Mr. Michael Mulvey and our appreciation goes out to him for all his work completed to date. He alluded to the two events we were fortunate to be involved with namely the “Disability Services & Information Showcase day” and our own celebration of European Day for Disability with the theme “ Education for People with Disabilities & the Older Person”. Both of which were a great success.
Disabilities Showcase Day 2017 & European Day for Disability 2017
Early in 2017, Independent People with Disabilities were approached by Ms. Linda Jo Quinn who is co-ordinator of the Disability Subgroup of Westmeath Community Development and asked if we would consider running the Disabilities Showcase Day 2017event and European Day for Disability 2017 event together in an effort to reduce costs. We were delighted to take this opportunity as previous years were proving to be very costly.
So the preparations began in earnest. Independent People with Disabilities were given the task of acquiring speakers on subject we had chosen which was “Independence for People with Disabilities and the Older Person”.
After a lot of e-mails going to and from perspective speakers we acquired service providers and service users of the centre for independent living organisation in Westmeath based in Kinnegad. We also got a call from a gentleman from Belmont in Co. Offaly by the name of Gerry Mc Cabe who had a very impressive story to tell and needless to say he stole the show.
From feedback received the event was a great success with a total of 33 disability organisations in attendance showing off their wares and 102 members of the public passing through the doors on the day.
Representation
The organization continues to have representation in the various committees such as:
This gives the organization significant influence in the community.
Collections 2017
Independent People with Disabilities wishes to take this opportunity to thank all the businesses who supported us in our fundraising efforts in 2017 and also the people who gave so generously of their time to help us with Churchgate Collections and Flag Days at the various locations in Athlone, Moate and Mullingar.
We would also like to thank:-
and
for their continued support to the organisation.
In Conclusion
Michael Mulvey (Company Secretary) would like to thank all of his fellow Directors on the Board for their continued support in fundraising activities which Independent People with Disabilities was involved in throughout the year and he looks forward to working with all of them into the future.
Ends.