Letters to the Editor: No future for adults with intellectual disability

One reader writes in to say that without any policy in place, the Government’s default position is to let us live our lives, sometimes without respite, looking after our adult children with an intellectual disability until we drop

Tony Murray and his wife Susan Corrigan set up Before We Die, an organisation aimed at changing the system so a plan is in place for care to be provided for people with intellectual disabilities whose parents are ageing and may soon not be in a position to continue to care for them. Picture: Moya Nolan

I attended a Before We Die public meeting in Cork, led by Tony Murray, last week. Tony is leading a campaign to secure housing and care for adults with an intellectual disability in Ireland. He is the father of an adult with intellectual disability.

I am the mother of a 28-year-old man with intellectual disability. I learned that we the carers, among the hundreds who attended the meeting, are forgotten citizens and our adult children are also forgotten citizens. I learned there is no plan for our future or their future.