Parents of disabled children to protest as Ahern opens facility

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will once again be besieged by protesters of parents with disabled children today when he opens a new facility in Dublin.

Mr Ahern will officially open offices in St Michael's House, Dublin, which has the longest waiting list in the country for mentally handicapped people seeking residential care.

There is no money available for new places this year, which means that "emergency cases" on the waiting list will have to be accommodated in inappropriate settings such as nursing homes.

These cases typically arise when the aging parent of a mentally handicapped person dies and there is no one left to care for them at home.

The chief executive of St Michael's house, Michael Ledwidge, has confirmed that eight such cases have arisen this year and more will arise because there are no spare places in the centre.

"We have 344 people looking for residential care. A significant number of those 131 have parents aged between 70 and 80 years of age.

Sadly, a significant number of these people will die over the next year and there will be nowhere to go for those on the waiting list," Mr Ledwidge said.

A coalition of disability groups say funding of 20m is needed this year for emergency cases nationally, or else they will end up in inappropriate nursing homes or even psychiatric institutions.

Among the protesters outside St Michael's house will be Dan Moore, whose says his 48-year-old Downs Syndrome brother, Peter, died 18 months ago due partly to the lack of suitable residential places for him.

Peter McKenna developed Alzheimer's disease and St Michael's House decided they had to move him to a setting with 24-hour nursing care.

"He received brilliant care while he was in St Michael's house," Mr Moore said. "But he was moved to a place we were unhappy with. He died from blood poisoning 12 days later in extreme pain."

The dispute between St Michael's House and the family of Mr McKenna over whether a nursing home in the Dublin area was suitable was eventually resolved in the High Court, which ruled that the home was in the client's best interests.

Mr Ledwidge said it was not policy to comment on specific cases, but said Mr Kenna needed specific nursing care which St Michael's House was unable to offer at the time.

He said a special Alzheimer's Unit has since been developed.