Children with disabilities will continue to receive essential therapy through Inspire Foundation after the government agreed to help the NGO find a way to continue offering its services, Family Minister Chris Said announced yesterday.

We have agreed, in principle, to give all the necessary help

“We met with Inspire Foundation and agreed to keep increasing help offered to the foundation so that it does not have to reduce its services... We’ve agreed, in principle, to give all the necessary help,” he said.

Dr Said added that discussions were still under way to iron out what form government help would take. It was looking into reaching agreements with Inspire to offer services rather than dishing out donations.

Over the last few weeks the parents of the 250 children who benefit from therapy at Inspire – an NGO that works with people with disabilities – voiced their concern over the reduction in services due to lack of funds.

Government funding to Inspire dropped in 2010 when it was decided that the direct therapy expenses were outside the education budget and should be paid for by the Health Department.

This year, the Education Ministry provided the NGO with €800,000 to cover the educational expenses of the 250 children. However, the Health Department did not fork out funds for therapy, including speech and occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

Inspire functions through a balance of government funding, parent contributions and fund-raising. It needs €400,000 a year to cover therapy costs.

Speaking during a press conference, Dr Said said the government was committed to helping NGOs who worked with vulnerable groups.

He rebutted comments passed by the Labour Party stating that budgetary cutbacks were going to impact various NGOs.

With a list in hand, Dr Said said this was not true as this year the government was giving NGOs some €500,000 more than 2011. The money was already given or committed to them.

He pointed out that this year the government had allocated over €2.8 million to 28 organisations from the NGO Fund. Apart from that, for the first time, the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector gave €60,000 to 20 organisations.

In addition, another €2 million was given to projects and initiatives from the 2012 Budget. The government also forked out €795,000 to help 36 projects benefit from €14 million worth of EU funds, he said.