I am inviting disabled individuals, organizations, friends and relatives of disabled people to allow me put your signature on this letter I wish to send to the media and political representatives. I write it after Thursdays committee failure to represent us. say 'yes' to allow me include your signature and send message to my email: magsken57@gmail.com I will need your 'yes' TODAY. or at least by 10am tomorrow Monday 20th September.
Dear Sir/Madam,
The 2016 Census tells us that 643,131 people in Ireland had a disability. That is 13.5 per cent, or 1 in 7 of the population in Ireland has a disability. I certainly suspect this is an underestimation and has increased since then.
We have ‘representing’ us within the Oireachtas, ‘The Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters’ . This committee was due to sit last Thursday and only four elected politicians turned up. Holly Cairns (SD), Violet-Anne Wynne (SF), Pauline Tully (SF) and Sean Canney (Ind). No senators turned up, so the meeting could not take place. Looking at past attendance records; one TD only attended 1 out of 18 such meetings. In other words we disabled people are NOT being politically represented. We seem of no interest or value to elected politicians.
Disabled people in Ireland deserve better than mere tokenism. In 2018 Ireland ratified the UN convention on Rights for Disabled People (UNCRDP); this gave disabled people Human Rights. Ireland was the last European country to ratify, and yet our Irish political representatives failed to ratify the Optional Protocol (OP) that allows us take Human Rights infringements to the UN. Ratification was indeed, a political fudge on our Human Rights – tokenism.
Disabled people are poorly served at every level of society; from the cradle to the grave we are playing ‘catch-up’ to fellow non-disabled citizens. We struggle to have our disabled children educated at highly skilled levels, to enable teenagers plan for university, jobs, and roles within society, to enable adults to be employed (often passed over due to discrimination), to enter professions, public life, political life. We have nearly 2,000 young people in nursing homes because the care and housing sector is pitiful for young, more severely impaired persons needing care.
Aids, adaptations, equipment – even provision of wheelchairs are at Dickensian levels of standards and provision. We must languish without wheelchairs for months if they ‘break down’.
Independent living is NOT supported. Certainly not supported for older disabled people who want to stay in their own homes, surrounded by their life’s endeavours; pets, family, books, collections…old disabled people must move – automatically – from the disability HSE oversight to HSE elder care, whether they want to or not!
As for transport, we cannot access many train stations due to lift breakdowns, non- serviced stations, and inaccessible stations and demands for pre-notification to travel. Rural transport or disabled people is virtually non-existent. Both the mobility allowance and transport allowance were taken away and never re-instated, as promised.
Covid hit the disabled and elderly disabled persons particularly hard as there was no framework to support us. Carers were not given PPE, nor immediately vaccinated. We had to cut back on carers to keep ourselves safe and alive.
We the undersigned have ‘had enough’.
We now demand;
• A quota system to facilitate the election of disabled persons into the Dail.
• Ratification of the Optional Protocol immediately.
• A political shift from the charity model of support to a social model framework that facilitates, independent living, human rights and equality of citizenship rights afforded non-disabled people.
• Increase in all social welfare, pensions, medical care, primary care budgets for disabled people, to cover cradle to grave needs and a life worth living.
• A radically improved budget for such things as wheelchairs, aids and equipment, home adaptations and living supports.
• More public housing that is specifically designed for disability access and disabled persons.
We will no longer accept the ‘begging bowl’, ‘tin-rattling’, position in society; we are NOT accepting the position of ‘bottom rung’ on the Irish citizen ladder.
Last Thursday’s Oireachtas ‘Committee on Disability’ meeting just exemplifies our status. Politicians treated us with contempt. We did not matter.
We are citizens of Ireland, not second class citizens and we proclaim that position loudly. .
Yours Sincerely,
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