Finian McGrath happy to take ‘hell’ from service users

Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath officially opened a €2.1m Children and Adult Services Centre in West Cork but not before receiving a good-natured earful from service users in relation to disability issues.

Mr McGrath visited Clonakilty for the opening of the CoAction Centre, paid for almost entirely through fundraising, and was welcomed by a group of service users and self-advocates, who used a meeting with the minister to raise issues such as respite funding and local transport.

“They gave me welly, and hell,” the minister told the large crowd at the ceremony, namechecking Andrew Buttimer, Claire Calnan, Jack Barry and Melissa Collins as the representatives who set the agenda. “There is a place in Dáil Éireann for some of these voices.”