The message is — all victories for disabled people are merely temporary
The Noones have shown the moral courage to go public and have joined others who have tried to shame the authorities into action.
We, as parents of a severely disabled daughter, aged 47, empathise entirely with their general problems. We have 25 years extra experience to call on, and while it may not lessen their burden we hope it will enlighten them a little more.
First of all, they are dealing with the HSE, which does not appear to answer to anyone — not even its paymasters. HSE personnel, particularly at ground level, are first class, but the bureaucracy is appalling. Until a new ethos is introduced, the scandals and shortcomings will continue. The second body they will be dealing with is government which, apparently, is no relation to the first body — it’s only the paymaster.
Many people in the disability sector have tussled with different governments over the years.
Some have lost tragically. Brigid McCole, in her case with the then Health Minister Michael Noonan, is possibly the best known. Others have won temporarily.
Proinsías de Rossa, when Minister for Social Welfare in the 1990s, gave disabled people the lowest-ever disability allowance increase in the annual budget. The message is — all victories for the disabled are merely temporary and will continue until the ethos is changed.
Between the Government and the HSE you have the victims who have no rights, no unions and, in many cases, are unable to fight their corner with only parents and family carers to further their cause.
There are parents like the Noones and others who have the strength to do battle with the authorities, but there are many, God help us, who do not.
The war will never be won because the victims will remain the meat in the sandwich.
Denis McDonnell
Calderwood Drive
Donnybrook
Douglas
Cork
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