TD speaks about terminal illness

FIANNA Fail TD Michael Fitzpatrick has spoken about living with motor neurone disease.

The Kildare North TD, 67, was diagnosed with the terminal condition in February.

“I feel 100%,” he said. “I feel extremely well for somebody who has a terminal illness. I come into the Dáil as required when it is sitting. I do my clinics on a Monday and a Friday. I go to the usual events and functions that I have been doing all the time. While I might have slowed down a little on the night work, I have not slowed down anything on the day work,” he added.

“I could be on a sick certificate from the Dáil, but I wouldn’t even consider doing something like that. I have a job to do here that I was elected to do and I intend to keep doing it as long as possible.”

“It took me a long time to get into the Dáil and I’m going to stay here as long as I can,” he said. “If I feel as well as I do today, I will stand at the next election.

“My writing is poor, I have to use my left hand. I don’t feel handicapped other than that my right hand has weakened considerably, but I can type and answer the phone.”

Mr Fitzpatrick said he had spoken to Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny about his condition, and both they and all other members of the Oireachtas have been very supportive.

He said he had also spoken to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, who himself is battling prostate cancer.

“I have compared notes with Brian Lenihan on a number of occasions. We are both on a journey. We talk and chat to one another about our illnesses,” he said.

“... I know this condition is incurable and terminal, but I think of living all the time, not dying. My focus is on living.”