Third world citizens hidden away in first world country that doesn’t care

SO there is now a plan to end one of Ireland’s greatest scandals.

The Government, through Minister for Disability John Moloney, has announced details of measures to move 1,200 people out of psychiatric hospitals in Ireland into more appropriate accommodation. I wish the plan well.

John Moloney has worked hard since he became Minister for Disability to instil some confidence in what had become an area of disillusionment and cynicism.

He has at least recognised how scandalous it is that Ireland continues to ignore some of our most neglected citizens.

People who are imprisoned in some of the bleakest, most miserable surroundings in the country have been betrayed by successive governments. Even when we could afford to do a lot, we did nothing for most of them. They are third-world citizens in a first world country that doesn’t care.

So any plan finally to begin restoring some dignity to their lives — and many of them have short enough lives to lead — has to be welcomed and supported.

Two things, however, give me pause.

First, the resources behind this plan are somewhere between slim and none. The plan is entirely dependent, ultimately, on the state’s ability to raise money from the sale of lands and other assets by the psychiatric hospitals. It has to be that the hope of realising tens of millions of capital from such sales when property prices are going through the floor are very dim indeed.

In addition, the state has a terrible track record when it comes to ring-fencing money like this.

Years ago, the Government promised to ring fence €30m from the sale of land in Portrane for a major upgrade of St Ita’s Hospital, possibly the worst example of neglect in Ireland. It never happened.

In more recent times, more than €40m was raised from the sale of land in Mullingar and Clonskeagh — but very little of that has gone into making conditions even tolerable for people who live in such awful surroundings.

Despite years of critical reports, these incarceration centres have carried on regardless, getting worse and worse each year.

The issue of resources is of course the one thing that has most bedevilled improvements in services for elderly psychiatric patients and for people with an intellectual disability. You only have to look at the documents published by the minister himself to see it in stark relief.

Take, for example, the Progress Report (year three review) of the Sectoral Plan under the Disability Act 2005, issued at the end of last year. In his foreword, Minister Moloney says “there is no doubt that a number of significant developments have taken place in the short period since the health sectoral plan was published, with the aim of improving the manner in which services respond to the needs of people with disabilities”.

But in fact the single biggest achievement he can report in the third year was the creation of his own office, with the capacity to prepare better plans for the future.

If he had been able to report really significant improvements in services, the report would have been peppered with them. Instead, it is essentially a cosmetic exercise, designed to hide the fact that, once again, people with disabilities had gone back to the bottom of the resource allocation list.

And that’s the second reason one has to pause before applauding the latest plan.

I don’t doubt Minister Moloney’s personal commitment to this cause — but I do really doubt the political commitment of the Government as a whole.

If they were really committed, then not only would they be willing to take a real risk and just spend the money it takes to end the forced insitutionalisation of a thousand helpless people — but they would be making absolutely certain it can never happen again.

The only way to do that is to invest the money needed now to ensure that people with an intellectual disability get the education they need to make the most of their lives. It’s the best (and cheapest) preventative measure possible.

But St Joseph’s School in Balrothery proves, surely, that the Government is blind to that.

St Joseph’s (which is in the heart of a community that cannot be described as affluent, or heavily advantaged) caters for children from five to 18 years with a wide variety of special educational needs.

Their needs have been individually assessed as including intellectual disabilities, behavioural problems, emotional and psychological difficulties, speech, language and communication disorders, psychiatric problems, autism, ADHD and physical disabilities.

The school has developed a track record of being a warm and welcoming place where students do well.

They have introduced a range of FETAC programmes and students have been sitting the Junior and Leaving certificate exams. They have developed programmes to counter poor behaviour and an in-school counselling programme to deal with emotional difficulties, anxiety and upset among our students.

The school has now been told staffing — both teaching and special needs assistant staff — is to be reduced by two-thirds. In effect, the school will be broken up, with students having to be sent to other schools.

There is a real question mark over whether the school can survive this.

This is a school that has been inspected by the Department of Education — it passed with flying colours. It is preparing young people for a life of independence and value. It is supported wholeheartedly by its local community.

So why is this happening?

How could it be happening?

There are so many statements on the record from successive education ministers about their commitment to disability.

LOOK at this from Mary Hanafin when she was minister: “We have made enormous advances in the provision of resources for pupils with special educational needs in recent years ... We are all aware of past failings in not providing adequately for special education.”

And the current minister, Batt O’Keeffe: “Education of students with special educational needs continues to be a key priority for this Government ... the Government is committed to providing targeted support for special needs and has allocated additional funding of €20 million for 2009 to continue to enhance frontline services for these children.”

That was only about a year ago. Now the minister is refusing to meet anyone connected with St Joseph’s, refusing to contemplate any change in the decision.

It’s all about money.

At the end of the day, when the going gets tough, the weak get sacrificed. It’s actually easy to fire a special needs assistant because they are all on short-term contracts.

If you want to save money, you do it the easy way. And people without a voice suffer first and most.

And in the process we’re repeating the mistakes of the past, mistakes we vowed we’d never repeat. If the Government wants to prove it has learned, it will save St Joseph’s and other schools like it. If it doesn’t, it’s another step away from a civilised society.