Seanad debates
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Services for People with Disabilities
1:00 pm
Brendan Ryan (Labour)
I thank the Minister of State. I am conscious that he is delivering the response on behalf of another Minister. We hear many examples of the effect of the recruitment embargo such as libraries in Malahide and Rush not being open. That is not acceptable, given that money has been spent on these facilities. We must not let this affect the delivery of much-needed services to the members of a most vulnerable group in our society, the intellectually disabled. It is a disgrace that we would build a much-awaited unit at great expense and then not open it. While I note the Minister of State's comments, they are not reassuring. It seems this will be an endless process, with the Minister of State referring to the seeking of further information. We must have speedy delivery. It is a shame that the development is lying idle when so much money has been spent on it and the service users need the service urgently. I urge the Minister of State to progress the issue as swiftly as possible.
Kathleen Ruane
Posted on 23 Feb 2010 10:31 am (Report this comment)
Good response, though perhaps a bit too polite considering the dire conditions to which the disabled of any stripe in the country are consigned--we are non-persons whose needs are persistently ignored by this government. And that seems rather odd when one pauses to think about that because this government is itself so obviously suffers from multiple disabilities: it is blind, deaf, and intellectually challenged. It's blind to the existence of anyone living outside the Pale; it is deaf to the needs of its citizenry; and that it's intellectually challenged is painfully obvious in the manner it went about throwing away a fortune that belonged to "the people", not the government", and that could have been spent wisely and prudently to last for many generations instead of a few years at the top.