George Lawlor: Families Deserve Certainty for Disabled Adults
George Lawlor spoke in the chamber in support of a motion calling for long-term planning and certainty for adults with intellectual disabilities. He urged the Minister to move beyond crisis-driven responses and provide dignity, safety and continuity for vulnerable citizens.
Family testimony: Lawlor named his constituent Jane Johnstone and her sons Evan and Daniel to illustrate the everyday fear many families live with about future care. He described how the loss of a parent compounds an already intense burden and called for state responsibility rather than ad hoc responses.
State responsibility and planning: Lawlor criticised the pattern of intervention only after a crisis, saying that waiting until a parent dies or reaches breaking point is not planning but a failure of the republic's duty. He framed the issue as one of citizenship and human dignity for people with intellectual disabilities.
What the motion seeks: The speech stresses that adults with intellectual disabilities are citizens with hopes, preferences and relationships, not simply service users to be placed where vacancies exist. Lawlor asked for certainty, dignity and a clear plan to protect those people and to relieve ageing parents of unbearable worry.
Consequences: By highlighting a real family case, Lawlor sought to make the political argument concrete: without long-term planning, families continue to carry risks and anxieties that the state should share. The address places responsibility on the Minister and the Government to ensure safe, supported and valued futures for these citizens.
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Thank you Cathaoirleach. Minister, I strongly support this motion. For too long families across this country have lived with a fear that most of us here in this chamber could scarcely imagine. Not a fear of what happens today or tomorrow, but a fear of what happens when they are no longer here. They lie awake at night wondering who will care for their son or their daughter, where they will live, whether they will be safe, whether they'll be happy or whether they will still be connected to the people and places that they love and know. That fear is real. It is lived every day, every single day by families throughout Ireland. I'm thinking today in particular of my constituent Jane Johnstone and her two sons Evan and Daniel. Jane and her late husband Rod devoted and continue to devote their lives to loving and supporting their boys. And like so many parents of adults with intellectual disabilities, they did and do everything the state asks of them and more. They carry the responsibility, the worry, the advocacy that should never have fallen on families alone. The loss of Rod, Jane's husband, in 2014 was a devastating blow for Jane and the boys. But she's not asking for special treatment. She's asking for certainty. She's asking for dignity and a plan. Surely that is not too much to ask in what we term a modern republic. Far too often the state intervenes only when a crisis exists. A parent dies or becomes ill or a family reaches breaking point. That is not planning, Minister. That is failure. This motion recognises that people with intellectual disabilities are not service users to be fitted into whatever vacancy happens to exist. They are citizens of this nation with hopes, preferences, relationships and ambition. We owe that to every person with an intellectual disability. We owe it to every ageing parent carrying the burden of worry which is intense. And we owe it to families like Jane, Evan and Daniel Johnstone and to the memory of Rod who wanted nothing more than what every parent wants. The knowledge that his children would be safe, supported and valued long after he was gone. Go raibh maith agat.
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