Pensioner waits six months for house inspection so council can begin repairs

FROM THE roadside the single-storey cottage is an eye catcher.

The deception however is great, and for its 67-year-old pensioner occupier, Kevin O’Reilly, life is far from a bed of roses.

The one-bedroomed cottage at Glenagare West outside the East Cork village of Ladysbridge has been home to Kevin and his Labrador dog Sola for the last dozen years. It is without a bathroom, the toilet is in serious need of upgrading, and rats have been frequent visitors.

There’s a cruel twist to Kevin O’Reilly’s dilemma. Cork County Council has funding from a special grant scheme to provide a bathroom and modernise the toilet facilities, and has long since approved the work and accepted a tender.

However, another illustration of the chaos within the health service is holding everything up, and until the Health Service Executive provides the necessary medical report the council cannot begin the work.

“It is an intolerable situation and one no human being should have to endure’, says Kevin, a native of Co Monaghan but who has lived in the East Cork area for many years.

Three years ago Kevin suffered a heart attack and a year later he had a stroke. He has diabetes, suffers from arthritis, is on 14 tablets a day, and is generally only in moderate health.

“I had to throw the bath out of what is supposed to be a bathroom because the rats were coming in underneath it,” he said. “The Southern Health Board has letters from two doctors on my behalf and also from my consultant rheumatologist at Cork University Hospital. But the work can’t go ahead until an inspection of the house has been undertaken and a report submitted by one of the health board’s occupational therapists.”

According to Kevin’s local county council representative, Martin Hallinan, there is a lengthy waiting list with all the rheumatology consultants overburdened.

Mr Hallinan said: “Kevin is six months on that waiting list and he still has not been visited by the therapist. That is a scandalous situation.

“My criticism is not of the consultants but of a health service that cannot provide enough personnel to do a proper job.”

At times Kevin feels there are people even worse off than himself. His 80-year-old neighbour doesn’t even have running water and that, he says, is a disgrace in this day and age.

Still he continues to live in hope, and his lone New Year wish is a simple and straight forward one.

“I wish to come off the waiting list sooner rather than later so Cork County Council can go ahead with doing what needs to be done, and has the funding to do it,” he said.

“That can’t be too much to ask.”

However, given the bureaucratic red tape that seems to have the entire health service tied up, Kevin O’Reilly would be wise not to hold his breath.