Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The answer is what I expected but the problem is that both Cork city and county councils have waiting lists of seven years duration in respect of adaptation works. The reply I have received is not going to do anything about that.For instance, in two cases the family has gone to the Ombudsman for Children. I have one family which has been waiting more than six years. The child has Canavan disease, which is related to cystic fibrosis. The parent has to lift the child up and down the stairs every day to go to the bathroom because there is no downstairs bathroom. The child is now seven. It is more difficult every day to lift the child because the child is getting bigger. I have a number of other cases like this. That case has gone to the ombudsman's office, which is dealing with the local authority directly.

There is another problem with house adaption work in that no rating is given to the seriousness of the disability. Once someone is deemed to require adaption work, he or she is just a number on a list and there is no priority list whereby, for example, the most serious case is five and the least serious is one. That is another issue local authorities must deal with.

I have people waiting seven years on Cork City Council and the response I have received has done nothing to help me to resolve their problems. The solution I have come up with is to deal with this backlog over one year to make serious inroads, and this should be taken on board.