Mattie McGrath: Urgent plea to fix supports for people with disabilities
Deputy Mattie McGrath spoke about the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with disabilities and urged urgent government action. He warned that service disruptions, long waiting lists and administrative failures had amplified isolation for families and called for automatic July provision and a phased return to normal life.
Impact on people with disabilities
He described disruptions in education, employment, healthcare and social services that have left many people with developmental, physical and behavioural needs extremely isolated. Parents were forced into full-time caring roles and to act as special educators, speech therapists and behavioural therapists, often without the specialised supports their children need.
Education services and transport
He argued that July provision should be automatic this year and criticised ongoing problems with school bus tickets and the department of education, calling the system cumbersome and dysfunctional. The lack of predictable services compounded exhaustion and frustration for families throughout the pandemic.
Waiting lists and health administration
He highlighted waiting lists of "1,400" and waits of years for supports, calling the situation callous and blaming successive governments and dysfunctional HSE administration. He acknowledged that there are good people within agencies such as QSL, but said the overall system is clogged and prevents effective change.
Community efforts and stalled projects
He praised local community efforts, including a pre-COVID group called Positive Steps Together that raised funds to build a resource centre and provide respite, but said COVID halted meetings, HSE engagement and planning. The pandemic stalled grassroots initiatives that families depended on.
Call for reopening and investigation
He urged the government to "let our country live again," citing recent figures "with 63 patients in hospital last Monday, 67 and 23 in ICU," and called for an international investigation into pandemic handling. He warned of continuing anguish for parents who rang TDs throughout the crisis and compared the failures to past health controversies such as the cervical cancer smear issue.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly disrupted everyone's lives. Clearly it affects greatly considerably for people of different race, ethnicities and indeed income levels. But what has been the impact on people with disabilities? For instance, children and teenagers with a wide range of developmental, physical and behavioural needs have been very severely impacted. Ongoing harm caused by the pandemic, rather caused by the government's inaction, or action as I said earlier, has been especially evident for people with disabilities. Disruptions in education, employment, healthcare, social services have been amplified. Parents took full-time care-going roles, while also stepping into new roles as special educators, speech therapists, behavioural therapists and more. This has been exhausting, frustrating and often just not possible for many families. July provision, July provision should be just automatic this year, there shouldn't be any real hassle of getting this, but our systems are cumbersome. Also the school bus tickets, the mayhem is starting again, year after year after year, a dysfunctional department of education, and that they can't have these kind of things sorted out. For many families, programs and social life curtailed. Many people who have intellectual or physical disabilities require highly specialised programs. And indeed, one to one, direct support to be safe, to learn, to work, or perform daily living skills. Some may have more difficulty using technology or learning and working in a virtual world. For many, their social life is solely through schools, employment, or community programming. So the effect of limited social networks during the pandemic has been extreme isolation, and especially difficult. Unbelievable. It's hard to believe it. With Ireland, and I was signing up to United Nations, you know, UN treaties and conventions. But it's been a daily struggle. My late brother was a pediatrician. He's gone now since 2011. God help us. Sorry, 2006. And he championed this, and he was a pediatrician. And I meet families still that miss him, Dr. Eddie McGrath. Dr. Eddie McGrath, but the battle for people, for families. They have a profoundly disabled child or with whatever learning difficulties. And they have to fight for every muscle of support. They have waiting lists of 1,400. They have waiting lists of years. It's callous. I'm not blaming you, Minister, now, but I'm blaming successive governments. We talk about it, and we sign up to the conventions, but we do nothing about it. And we have, you know, massive dysfunctional HSE admin staff. We have massive dysfunctional, we have QSL and other agencies. And there are some great people within those organizations, but they get frustrated. And if they're trying to make change, they'll stop, get back into your box and do this and do that and the other. And the whole situation now, and I want to compliment the people that did go into work and did work and did work and got services going, but there's lots of public servants now out there and they're not putting their weight. They need to get back to work and get the system that's clogged, the agricultural system, the many systems, there's just nothing happening. They don't even open an envelope, the passport office, the driving license, the theory tests. Some of these people, you know, need their licenses to be essential to drive some of their children with intellectual or physical disabilities to school or to play or to special playgrounds. And I salute from the bottom of my heart the mothers and the mothers and the fathers and families and siblings and the communities that are trying to work. We in Koshka, New and Asura have set up a wonderful organization, pre-COVID, positive steps together to try and put a building and a resource center together for, give some respite to some of these pens. And we were going great. And I must say there was huge enthusiastic support and an outpouring of support. And we raised a considerable amount of money in a short time. But along comes COVID and everything has stuck to the ground. No meetings, no HSE business, no interactions, no planning, no nothing. So we need to, as I said earlier, Chairman, we need to, with 63 patients in hospital last Monday, 67 and 23 in ICU, we need to let our country live again. We need to get the cabal of netford off our backs and let us live and get the government to take control and get the government to look after all the people, but especially the people suffering with these ailments. And let us live again. We've been looking for the fear and everything that's been driven into us. And I see the debate now with the engine test. This will all come out in the international investigation that I'm calling for. And we'll be seeing the gaping failures and we'll be reminded then of the cervical cancer smear of what happened. This is shocking. But above all, this area here needs to be dealt with because these people deserve, and the anguish and the parents that were ringing us all, all TDs got called from the parents who couldn't cope and everything else during the early days of COVID and all through last year. And I think this is continuing again 15 months later. And if they ever get their way, they'll continue into the winter and over Christmas. Thank you, David. Thank you.
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