John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Finian McGrath for bringing this important issue before the Dáil. I concur with what Deputy Seamus Healy said about Slí Eile in Clonmel. The anger of people in the south east at the closing of this facility is unbelievable. Last week, I took part in a radio show with some of the workforce of Slí Eile. More than 1,700 calls came into the radio station from Clonmel and across counties Waterford, Wexford and Tipperary. People cannot believe the Government has reached the stage of cutting services to the most severely disabled people, those with severe brain injuries. The people who work in the facility are highly skilled. Some of them trained in England in the specific skills of rehabilitating those with severe brain injury. Within the next year, 5,000 people will present at hospitals throughout the country with severe brain injury, adding to about 60,000 people already suffering. Brain injury rehabilitation is a specific service by highly trained personnel. This closure will be extremely detrimental to the Minister of State. I do not think she realises the seriousness of what she has done in cutting this service by highly trained people.

The most vulnerable people in society are those with disabilities and those who care for them. Parents care for their children and children care for their parents. The psychological trauma they suffer is everlasting. A brain injury does not heal so that everything is all right in a few weeks or months. People have to live with brain injury for the rest of their lives. The trauma within a household when a brain injury occurs is dramatic and heart-rending.

In the current economic circumstances, surely it is obligatory for all of us to help those who are most vulnerable in our society. Wherever cuts are made, and even if those of us on this side of the House oppose them, to withdraw services from the people who are most vulnerable is shameful and appalling. Knowing the Ministers of State, Deputies Jan O'Sullivan and Kathleen Lynch, as I do, I know they do not want to do that. It is not in their psyche to do so. The Government must, however, take another look at what is being done and find another way. We can all suggest alternative ways to get the money. The Government is not going to listen to our alternative, which is to take from the rich and from those who are not paying their fair share, but whatever is done, why must services be taken from those who are vulnerable?

These people cannot speak for themselves, because they cannot speak. They often cannot get to a polling station because they are too ill. These are the people who need to be protected by us, no matter what we have to do. There are decent people in all parties in the House. We have all come across people who suffer a disability and the people who work with them, sometimes having to manage them for 24 hours a day. We have seen the love shown by carers and how disabled people are deprived of the simple pleasures in life the rest of us can enjoy. We must offer them something back and give them a little extra, year after year and budget after budget. We should not be cutting at all. The Minister for Finance should be trying to find something extra that would give these people a lift and a better quality of life. That is what they deserve and need.

When we speak about vulnerable people and the most vulnerable in our society, we must put some thought into the families who spend 24 hours a day with a person who has a disability. We must give some thought to the mother, father, son or daughter who will spend the rest of their lives caring for a disabled person. No money can pay for that, but we should not offend these people by making miserable cuts to the mobility allowance or other disability payments. That is offensive to them. They believe they deserve better.

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