John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pretty sour and annoyed this morning. I took a call at about 9.30 p.m. last night from a young man, a wheelchair user. He had been looking for me since 8.30 p.m. He has a job, one of the minority in a minority in that respect. He uses a powered wheelchair which he requires because he is significantly physically disabled. His wheelchair broke down. The Health Service Executive, HSE, has a contract with a company which I will not name to provide an out-of-hours emergency service. He rang the number he should ring a couple of times but got no answer. He rang another number that he had used before for the out-of-hours service and talked to somebody he knew. He told them the battery in his wheelchair was dead. The response, while understanding, was that nothing could be done about it as it was not an emergency. That is what the man reported to me. Luckily he was within ten or 15 minutes walk of his home. His 77 year old mother and his sister came to his aid. How can something like that happen and how can somebody say so easily that this was not an emergency? I do not know what I am calling for this morning in respect of this case but it is a wake-up call for us. Something needs to happen and I will certainly follow up this matter.

The Democratic Programme of the first Dáil states:

The Irish Republic fully realises the necessity of abolishing the present odious, degrading and foreign Poor Law System, substituting therefor a sympathetic native scheme for the care of the Nation's aged and infirm, who shall not be regarded as a burden, but rather entitled to the Nation's gratitude and consideration.

"Infirm" was as politically correct a term as could be used 100 years ago and I thank the writers of that document for that. More commonly people referred to imbeciles, cripples and the deaf and dumb. Our language has moved on but the young man to whom I referred was left stranded. The final thing he said to me was that what really bothered him was that this would happen to other people. He said he at least could use his voice and make phone calls but what about somebody who cannot or somebody who is caught in the middle of nowhere?