Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry I was not present but I was listening to what the Minister of State on the monitor in my office. I support Deputy Dan Neville in respect of adaptation grants for showers and so on. If, for whatever reason, one wants one's bathroom renovated, it is great if one has a person with a disability - old or young - in the house and if one owns that house. If, however, one is a tenant of Dublin City Council or South Dublin County Council, then it is impossible. I give full marks to Dublin City Council and South Dublin County Council because when they are contacted regarding a private resident who wants a walk-in shower, a new bathroom or a new toilet installed, the job is done and the grant is paid within a couple of weeks. If one is a Dublin City Council tenant, if one lives on the second floor of, for example, Oliver Bond Flats and if one has a disability, one will find it almost impossible to get Dublin City Council to carry out adaptation works to one's dwelling. One cannot be given a flat downstairs because it will not be suitable. There are people waiting for extensions.

I have a constituent who is severely handicapped and in a wheelchair. His mother struggles to take him up and down the stairs, to bath or shower him, etc.. She has an old seat in which she puts him when she is bathing him. I have been trying to get an extension built on to their house for the past five years. Every time I go back to the council I am told my constituent is on the list. It is not acceptable for someone with a disability, regardless of whether he or she is a private tenant or a tenant of Dublin City Council or some other local authority, to be on a waiting list. People such as the man to whom I refer should all be treated the same. However, those with disabilities are not being treated the same. Somebody needs to make a definite decision about Dublin City Council tenants. These people have been completed neglected because and are being asked to continue to live in their current conditions.

I have another constituent who lives in a three-bedroom house which Dublin City Council would love to take back tomorrow. She lives downstairs in her kitchen. She cannot go upstairs because she cannot use the bathroom. I have been trying to get her into a local senior citizens complex. She got an offer of a place but it was not suitable. The woman has lived in close proximity to other people for so long that the place she was offered would not have been suitable as a result. If at all possible, somebody from the Minister of State's Department should speak to the local authorities about how they treat their tenants in terms of installing basic facilities - such as, for example, shower units - and the length of time people are obliged to wait.

Another constituent, whose name I will not mention, is a beautiful young man of 20 years of age who has autism and intellectual difficulties. I am embarrassed about this case. He can speak. His family has reared him to be a lovely young man. He lives in a different world. I see him every day because he lives not far from my home. His parents have been struggling since the day he was born to get him into various services. They made telephone calls, wrote letters, lobbied the authorities and did all in all in their power. Recently, after he finished in mainstream school, he was in a day care centre where he could do little work projects. He was excluded from the school because he had an altercation with one of the students and became violent. He has been out of sorts for the past couple of weeks because his medication has been changed. Somebody else is now looking after him. His family has requested that he be considered for long-term rehabilitation because there is no more they can do. They are at their wit's end. He has home help coming to the house. However, the home help runs out of the house and on to the street to get away from him. I have been in contact with the Minister of State's office, with the office of the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, and with the HSE. I have gone around the world in respect of this case.

We are spending huge sums of money, more money is coming in and all that could be offered to this family in stress was a week's respite in Monaghan. I do not usually talk about intimate, personal matters because I do not like naming people. As a public representative I have come to the end of the line, like that family because unless this lad is dealt with he will either hurt himself, the people caring for him or, worse, a member of the family. I listen to other public representatives describe individual cases at every meeting here. My job, like theirs, is to deal with individual cases. I have come to a brick wall on this one and I beg the Minister of State to intervene because I am afraid of what will happen. If anything serious does happen we will all be dragged over the coals and I do not think it is worth that. The Minister of State knows the case.