I am delighted and anxious to put briefly before the Minister the dire situation in which St. Michael's House, on the northside of Dublin, and the other organisations which represent people with intellectual disabilities such as NAMHI, the National Parents and Siblings Alliance, the Irish Autism Alliance and the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies, find themselves.
St. Michael's House will receive no extra funding whatever in 2003 for new residential, respite or day services. Currently eight service users are out of home mainly due to the death of the final care giver – often an elderly parent. St. Michael's House has the largest waiting list for residential care places in Ireland with 344 on the list. Many of these have elderly parents and it is expected that 20 or 30 will be out of a home before the end of the year.
The organisation has rented houses and taken on staff and is receiving no funding whatsoever from the Department of Health and Children. Effectively, what has happened is that the three year programme of residential care provision has collapsed completely and has been destroyed and removed by the Government. I wish to set out a few examples of the problems faced by elderly parents. Constituent A is a 35 year old man with a severe learning disability. He is a wheelchair user. He is a large man weighing 18 stone and needs two people to transfer him with an electronic hoist. He lives with elderly parents who have had health difficulties for some time. Constituent B is a 29 year old man with a severe learning disability. He is a wheelchair user but is extremely active and requires high levels of supervision. He has a poor sleep pattern and his mother may have to get up to him six or seven times a night. He is dependent on her, a 65 year old widow, for all his personal care.
Constituent C is a 17 year old girl with a severe learning disability and autism. She has challenging behaviour and can scream loudly and consistently. She can show some unusual obsessional behaviour. She lives with both parents who are finding life increasing difficult and hard.
Constituent D is a 39 year old man with a moderate learning disability. He lives with his mother who is a 72 year old widow. She has no other family supports to take care of him. I could go on to constituents E, F and G and I can give the Minister documentation from St. Michael's House if he wants it. It is an appalling state of affairs.
I am also very proud to represent organisations such as NAMHI, NPSA, the Federation of Voluntary Bodies and the autism body. We have heard from NAMHI. The Minister and every single Deputy will be aware of the waiting list of 1,711 citizens living at home who are desperately in need of residential service care. A further 861 require a day service and a further 1,014 require a respite service. Still in 2003, despite the campaigns of so many Members, Ministers and journalists such as Vincent Browne, there are over 400 people with intellectual disabilities living in totally unsuitable conditions in long-term psychiatric hospitals.
We did have a three-year programme and a phoney debate after the election. I am glad to see one of the Ministers here who participated in that phoney debate. I referred to this earlier with the Minister for Finance – a country with a surplus of €5.5 billion decided not to continue with our three year programme. We now have a desperate situation which requires a desperate response. A number of the organisations, NAMHI and others, heard the disgraceful comments by the Taoiseach in which he referred to the small dignified protest by the national organisations representing citizens with intellectual disability, as a small crowd made up of four organisations. NAMHI represents 160 organisations around the country and provides services for some 28,000 people. The other three bodies mainly involved – the NPSA, Irish Autism Alliance and the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies – were also very responsible.
As I said to the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, in the debate on a tax matter, the Ministers responsible can change this. In the coming weeks we could have an emergency programme or can simply continue the programme of additional provision for citizens with an intellectual disability. The Ministers responsible are not vindicating their rights, rather they are refusing to provide the necessary resources for them, even though they are in desperate need. The Ministers are a disgrace. I urge them at this late stage, particularly as there is a suplus of €5.5 billion, to provide these basic facilities for citizens with an intellectual disability. If they do not, week after week, my colleagues and I will continue to raise the matter until they do. I urge early action for St. Michael's, the NAMHI, the NPSA and all the other bodies which have during the years heroically tried to take care of our most vulnerable citizens.
