The opening of the Special Olympics will have moved many of us to tears. Tears of joy at the affirmation of common humanity as this country recognises the wonderful range of personal achievements and global cultures, writes Fintan O'Toole
Tears of wonder at the resurrection of black pride symbolised in such different ways by Muhammad Ali and Nelson Mandela. Tears of pleasure at the privilege of being allowed to share the untainted enthusiasm and untrammelled delight of athletes who have refreshed all the worn-out clichés about the thrill of being alive. Tears of nostalgia for the Kennedy legacy, so diminished on the 40th anniversary of JFK's visit, but reignited by the inspiration of Eunice Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith.
But also, alas, tears of anger and of frustration. The Special Olympics embodies a kind of ideal Ireland. We've been told often enough in the last decade that we had to choose between the old, decent communal values and a new hard-edged, competitive, can-do mentality. To ask why we can't have both together was to be a naïve, namby-pamby pinko. Yet here we have living proof that these two streams can form a sparkling river.
The event draws on the best of the old values: community spirit, the embrace of strangers, a genuine internationalism, voluntary effort, a warm-hearted response to those who do not fit the mould of narrow economic usefulness. Yet it is also superbly and efficiently organised, displaying a technocratic and managerial confidence that contradicts the old self-image of cheerful incompetence. It gives the lie to the notion that a 21st-century Irish society has to be driven by greed, materialism and a narrow sense of self-interest.
This very success, however, shines a harsh light on our leaders. If the values on display in the Special Olympics really do represent contemporary Ireland as it wants to be, how can that same Ireland be represented by a political leadership that manifests neither the social solidarity of the old values nor the can-do competence of the new ethic? If the Special Olympics show that we can have the best of both worlds, how come we consistently get the worst of both: the ruthlessness of free-market capitalism with none of the efficiency?
The very core of the event itself is the recognition and celebration of people with intellectual disabilities as full members of society. Yet while Irish people clearly want to make this statement, the Government that supposedly represents them does not. The outrageous attempt at a Disability Bill last year, the abandonment of Irish support for a UN charter on the rights of people with disabilities and the continuing failure to provide for basic needs all make hypocrisy the one event in which the Government deserves the gold medal.
Just last week the Health Research Board published its National Intellectual Disability Database, a fine piece of work that maps the needs of, and provision for, the very people whom the Special Olympics celebrate. A close look at the figures, which are for 2001, suggests that, while the situation improved in the boom years, there are still many problems and at least one scandal.
The scandal is that Ireland had, in 2001, 677 people with intellectual disabilities in psychiatric hospitals. There is nothing to suggest that the vast majority of these people suffer from any mental illness or psychiatric condition. They are simply dumped in these hospitals because there is nowhere else for them to go.
Putting people who are not mentally ill into psychiatric hospitals is regarded as the mark of a barbaric regime. It was one of the abuses of human rights in the old Soviet Union and one of the reasons why China is still the object of international condemnation. Even though the practice is being phased out in Ireland, the very fact that it continues at all is deeply shameful.
The database also shows that 10 per cent of Ireland's intellectually disabled persons - that's around 2,500 people - get no State services at all. Of these, 515 people are on waiting lists for day or residential services, which is bad enough, especially for the 170 or so people whose disability is moderate, severe or profound. Even more alarming, however, is the fact that 2,265 people not only have no services at present, but "have no identified requirement for services within the five-year period 2002-2006".
The key word here is "identified". Some of these people have mild disabilities and may not in fact need much State provision in the next three years. But it's clear that 743 people in this category are seriously intellectually disabled and yet are getting no services at all. It is especially disturbing that at least 53 children who have a moderate, severe or profound intellectual disability are neither currently availing of services nor on any waiting list.
Overall, of the 26,668 people with intellectual disabilities, 2,440 are either without services or without a major element of the service they need; 677 are in psychiatric hospitals; and 10,182 who are currently receiving services require alternative, additional, or enhanced services within the next three years. So half of the intellectually disabled population is in urgent need of extra provision. When the Olympic flame has been extinguished, are these people to be left out in the cold?