Mary White (Fianna Fail)

It is my pleasure to welcome the Minister of State. This represents a great move to promote the human rights of people of all ages with a disability, be it intellectual or physical. As the Minister said, people with money are well able to get advocates to represent them. As politicians, we regularly advocate for persons who cannot break through the bureaucracy. The new national advocacy service will empower people with a disability by supporting them in asserting their views and claiming their entitlements and, where necessary, will negotiate on their behalf.

I have personal experience of an injustice done to a good friend, Mr. Martin McBride of Portsalon, County Donegal. It was an invidious and unpleasant experience of the stigma attached to epilepsy. Martin worked in a clerical position in the late 1970s and 1980s in a public sector organisation in County Donegal. He had temporal lobe surgery in Beaumont Hospital in 1991 and his employers were intolerant of his condition. They prevaricated and procrastinated regarding his period of probation. His elderly mother, Mrs. Susan McBride, received letters and belligerent telephone calls, but her sole concern was that her son would live and get well.

Martin's consultant in the hospital's neurology department was world renowned for his expertise and knew the history of his condition better than anyone. However, the consultant's advice was contemptuously ignored and Martin was requested by the public service organisation in County Donegal to attend a doctor in Altnagelvin hospital for an independent medical review. That doctor carried out a perfunctory examination - his blood pressure and temperature were checked, etc. - but performed no brain scans, CAT scans or EEGs. Such scans are considered orthodox in hospital examinations for persons with epilepsy, as they provide guidance on prognosis and medication to be provided.

Martin received a letter from a senior official in the public service organisation. According to it, the doctor in Derry had stated that, following the examination, it was his view that Martin was unlikely to offer a worthwhile service to the organisation ever again. The doctor recommended that Martin be offered early retirement on medical grounds. He considered this callous. Caring and empathetic employers would have offered a career break for a few years, for example.

In Martin's experience, people are not open and frank in talking about epilepsy. Some will not even use the word. As with mental illness, epilepsy is regarded as being inscrutable, enigmatic and a source of shame. There is a stigma attached. The Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, is travelling around the country to try to do away with the stigma attached to mental illness, which is a worthwhile crusade.

People were patronising towards Martin; they glanced in his direction and there were furtive whispers. Stigma can manifest in low self-esteem, no self-confidence, withdrawal, isolation, depression and, in extreme circumstances, suicide. Martin could have offered his former employers a worthwhile service following recuperation had he been allowed to do so. He lives alone in his house. Modern medication, regular check-ups by consultants at Beaumont Hospital's excellent neurology department, research and technology enable a person with epilepsy to lead a normal life, as Martin does, despite being let go from his job. He was top of the poll at the Donegal Local Development Company and serves on many boards of management, on which he gives of his intelligence, opinions and observations. He is fully active, despite his epilepsy, but the conservative, ignorant and unjust approach adopted by his former employer demanded that he retire.

People might find it interesting to note that having epilepsy did not affect the contribution to society of people like Napoleon Bonaparte, Handel, Vincent van Gogh, Elton John, Agatha Christie, Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Burton. Few may know that these personalities had or have epilepsy. However, most are aware of their immense contribution to society. That is as it should be, with no stigma attached to divert attention from their intelligence, dignity and rights.

Martin spoke at a recent meeting in County Donegal. He quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, who said, "Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of injustice to the solid rock of human dignity."

This is a great day for all those who have a disability, are not top shots in society and cannot pay barristers and solicitors to advocate for them. We see those who can day in, day out because they have the money to get themselves out of various situations. Please God, this will be a great day for Ireland and those who suffer injustice and are not able to go to work, which is a fundamental right.

Martin's story shows the ugly conservativeness of those who did not have the guts to make a decision and judge whether he was able to do the job in question.