Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. This issue follows on from an issue I raised four weeks about a family in the Cork city council area whose child has a physical and intellectual disability. While that family were advised in July 2008 by a city council official of work to be carried out to their home to accommodate their daughter this work has yet commenced.

The issue I am raising today is the need for appointment of a disability officer. The aforementioned case is not the only case with which I am dealing. In fact, there are 57 families in Cork awaiting work to their homes to accommodate people with disabilities. In my dealings with Cork city council I have had interactions with officials from the housing department, finance department, architects department and so on. No one person appears to be in charge of a file. As I speak, the child, whose family have been waiting seven years for work to be done to their home, is in intensive care in a hospital in Cork. This family have provided the highest standard of care for their child over many years. She has to be lifted out of bed every morning, washed and tube fed. It is wrong that this family is providing this level support and we are not giving them the additional support they need. Like me, when they contact Cork City Council they can find no one person to respond to their needs.

While there is a disability officer in place to deal with local authority staff who have a disability there is no disability officer to interact with local authority tenants who have disabilities. It is in that context that I tabled this matter this morning.