FINIAN McGRATH, TD,
Madam, - On Tuesday, January 28th, I attended the protest outside the Mansion House in Dublin against the lack of Government provision for the disabled.
The Taoiseach made a very big mistake on the issue. He referred to the "small crowd" and four organisations. His remarks were insulting and dismissive to the many families of people with intellectual disabilities. In fact he should now apologise to these families.
The people there represented 1,711 on the residential waiting list, the 861 who require a day service, the 1,014 who require a respite service and finally over 400 people with intellectual disability living in totally unsuitable conditions in long stay psychiatric hospitals.
This is the real world, Taoiseach. Many people could not attend the protest because of their caring positions.
I now call on him to withdraw the insensitive remarks. He should put his money where his mouth is and invest €20 million in our services to assist the emergency cases. Then we will see if he really supports social inclusion. - Yours, etc.,
FINIAN McGRATH, TD,
Independent,
Dublin North Central,
Dáil Éireann,
Dublin 2.