Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking on behalf of a three year old boy from Killeagh in County Cork, Adam King. He has been waiting for a wheelchair since last July. I have been asking the Minister for Health about this for several months when Adam can expect to receive his wheelchair. It is a shame that when there is an increased allocation of resources, particularly to the Health Service Executive, HSE, that facility cannot be afforded to a three year old boy. His parents, Fiona and David, say that his dignity and safety are compromised daily.

Without a wheelchair, he is forced to spend much of his time on the ground on all fours. He has a walking frame but his mother, Fiona, says that it is too heavy to manoeuvre comfortably and he tires quickly. He can walk extremely slowly for a few metres before needing a break and, as I said, he is on a waiting list for a replacement walking frame since July 2017. He is due to start preschool in August and will need to be trained in the use of the wheelchair in advance to do everyday tasks. For example, he will need to learn how to hoist himself from it onto the toilet. I find it a little undignified to have to make the case in this House for a three year old child at a time when we have increased resources.

The manner in which the waiting list is operated is a cause of major frustration for Adam's parents. Last December, Adam was top of the Enable Ireland list but since then he has fallen back to fourth on the list. At the rate at which wheelchairs are allocated his mother, Fiona, estimates it could be May or June before his application is approved. There are no complaints by the family against Enable Ireland. Adam's parents say that his therapists from a physiotherapy and occupational therapy point of view are wonderful. Their critique is of the HSE resource allocation group which meets fortnightly, or monthly. At those meetings all the disability organisations, including the COPE Foundation and Enable Ireland, present their waiting lists, indexed in order of clinical need and applications for aids and appliances are also received from community health care organisations and acute hospitals on behalf of patients that are being discharged. While Fiona and David recognise that Adam is de factocompeting with adults who are in the acute hospital system, they would in no way wish for anybody else to be deprived of their services if they have a more urgent need but they, and I, fail to understand, as I am sure would anybody in this House, why at a time when we have increased resources owing to increased tax intake, economic growth and so on, the methodology used to allocate resources cannot be looked at afresh so that we do not have competing with adults for what is a basic human right.

Yesterday, the Dáil debated a motion on the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is ironic that Adam is not having his rights or entitlements enforced.

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