Respite service closure labelled ‘a great injustice’

THE closure of a major respite service for people with intellectual disabilities in the mid-west was described by its chaplin as the greatest injustice he has ever witnessed.

Up to 60 families from the Limerick and Clare area will be affected by the reduction in respite services at the Brothers of Charity centre in Bawnmore.

Many elderly parents with adult sons and daughters with intellectual disabilities find the respite service back up essential if they get sick or need a break.

Funding of €157,000 a year would be needed to retain the respite unit. Government funding to Bawnmore has been cut back this year by €1.2 million.

Fr Joe Young, chaplain at Bawnmore for the past eight years, said: “To me this is the greatest injustice I have experienced as 34 years as a priest.

“This is an abuse of the most vulnerable. Pain isn’t the word to describe what families are going through. The way I am feeling at the moment, I am happy that my own mother is not alive to see this happening in our city. She used tell me that if you don’t stand for something you fall for everything. No way as a human being and as a priest am I going to set back and let this happen. To me the essence of a civilised society, is the way we treat the marginalised. I can’t believe the suffering these families are now being subjected to.”

Fr Young said the families had said they would approach the JP McManus Foundation for funding to retain the respite services.

“This is not about charity; it is about justice. If this is the way we treat the marginalised, I don’t know what the government are doing. They are totally detached from reality. I can’t believe the suffering the families are going through.”

Jan O’Sullivan said it was an immoral scandal that an extra €2 billion of taxpayers' money was given to Anglo Irish bank two weeks ago on top of a previous injection of €12bn by this Government, while €1m to maintain frontline services in Bawnmore can’t be found.

She said: “I am calling on the Government to immediately allocate the €157,000 that is needed to stop the proposed closure of the respite house next Monday. This house cannot be allowed to close and it is a life line for over 63 families who look after and care for those with special needs and intellectual disabilities. We cannot allow a situation to develop were elderly parents and guardians of those availing of these services are now forced into an impossible scenario of trying to care for their love ones.

“This crisis requires political leadership and intervention to reverse the decision by a faceless bureaucrat who made this decision within the HSE with absolutely no regard what so ever for the loving care and professional service provided by the management and staff in Bawnmore.”