Government failing in its responsibilities

THE public response to the story of four-year-old JJ Ryan’s battles with bureaucracy is as heart-warming as the official response is chilling.

Within hours of his plight being revealed by the Irish Examiner yesterday, people were contacting the Jack and Jill Foundation which has been going beyond its brief in assisting him, offering their help and donations.

With their kindness, his parents will be able to avail of at least a little home help to make their lives, and more importantly, JJ’s life, a bit easier.

But that generosity won’t last indefinitely while JJ’s needs will. He’s just four years old now and has survived an onslaught of medical conditions and health problems that would test the strongest will.

JJ has proven he has that strength of will and all his parents are asking for is home help costing €300 a week to ensure they can be as strong as he, and his siblings, needs them to be.

That cost could be covered if just four TDs gave up their annual tax refund for having their laundry cleaned.

We are supposed to be in an era where every cent counts, but clearly in official circles every life doesn’t count in the same way.

Thankfully, wider society thinks differently and time and again we see communities, neighbourhoods, sectors and complete strangers respond to those in greater need than themselves with astonishing selflessness.

The fundraiser in all its myriad forms is an integral part of the weekly social calendar of every town and village in Ireland and that is a tradition to be valued dearly.

We’ll see it again this weekend when an auction of donated paintings and drawings is held for Alexandra Trotsenko, the young artist who needs financial help to obtain prosthetic fingers to replace those hacked off by the violent thug who broke into her apartment.

Alexandra has wept with emotion at the way the public has rallied to her aid, but it’s a struggle not to weep with frustration at the fact that the state would rather she remain incapacitated and dependent than give her the functioning hand that would allow her return to work.

It’s equally hard to know whether to be delighted or despairing that a group of TDs have recorded a charity single in aid of Pieta House.

Given the Government’s stated commitments to improving mental health and suicide prevention programmes, arguably it’s the job of elected representatives to find a way to meet those commitments by building a bridge over troubled finances instead of singing about troubled waters.

We’re going to see more and more examples of laudable charitable acts stemming from lamentable gaps in state funding and supports as another budget bites into already stretched social services.

The old saying is that charity begins at home and that that’s a good thing, but a modern take on it could be that charity begins where official responsibility ends.

Sadly, it often ends far too short of delivery.