Cork mother tells Taoiseach her disabled daughter has been 'ignored' by the State
Antoinette Burke (right) from Cobh confronts Taoiseach Micheál Martin (left). Picture: Noel Sweeney/PA Wire
A Cork mother has pleaded with Taoiseach Micheál Martin to ensure her 18-year-old disabled daughter can seek treatment abroad.
Antoinette Burke, from Cobh, told Mr Martin at the opening day of the Fianna Fáil think-in at the Rochestown Park Hotel that her daughter Katie Byrne has been “ignored” by the State.
Katie has cerebral palsy, severe hip dysplasia, a retroverted pelvis, a twister femur, and subluxation. She also has autism.
She has been advised she cannot get the surgeries she needs in Ireland, with her desperate mother now trying to ensure Katie can get a hip replacement. However, doctors have said she is too young.
Ms Burke told Mr Martin she had been seeking help for Katie for 14 years to no avail.
“Nobody in this country will do anything for her,” Ms Burke told the Taoiseach.
"Katie needs help. I can't stand by when you all stand here, you're going there to talk about healthcare. This is your legacy.
“This is 15 years on the 24th of this month [that] Katie is waiting on surgery."
She told Mr Martin his secretary has all of her daughter's files because she sent them to his office.
"She said she informed you. I've spoken to Simon Harris. He's ignored me. I've requested meetings with you, Simon Harris, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. She told me under the Governance Act that she cannot tell anybody in the HSE to help Katie. If that is the case, why do you have a minister for health? My daughter is suffering in this country.”
Mr Martin told Ms Burke that “clearly, for some reason, the clinical people, the consultants, have made a judgement”.
Mary Butler, a junior health minister, told Ms Burke she would take her number and contact her, but the Cork mother told her she had spoken to her two years ago about Katie’s case.
“Don't stand here and tell me that you will do something when two years ago, you did absolutely nothing,” she said.
Mr Martin told Ms Burke there was a treatment abroad scheme that people can avail of that “should be used” if the “expertise” is not available in Ireland.
“I will pursue that aspect of it,” he said. "We don't want to force surgeons to do something that they feel is clinically wrong.”
