Open Letter to Fergus Finlay

national | health / disability issues | opinion/analysis Thursday September 21, 2006 11:41 by Miriam Cotton

Response to item in Irish Examiner

I have to take issue with Fergus Finlay’s article in last Tuesday's Irish Examiner (‘Aisling’s story shows how special people are doing it for themselves’).

While I have no wish whatever to denigrate any progress made by special people in determining outcomes for themselves it is simply not true to say that ‘they’re well on the way to be being able to protest on their own behalf now.’ It may be true for some but certainly not all and definitely not the majority. The claim appears not to include at all those individuals who are more seriously dependent and a great number of those who, for lack of opportunity and appropriate supports, are prevented from consistently meaningful forms of self-determination, because of the badly under-funded and administered lottery that is state provision for people with disability.

It is astonishing to read the following statement from Fergus Finlay:

“A great many of the organisations that operate in the area of disability and the broader field of disadvantage have come to the belief that real citizenship and equality comes about through giving people the skills to tear down the barriers they face. That doesn’t mean abandoning people to their own devices, or not providing supports. It just means trying to build programmes that respect the abilities, talents and potential of individuals.’

There is no doubt of Mr Finlay’s personal commitment to and campaigning work on behalf of special people. But if we are not to abandon people to their own devices, what then are we to do to ensure that each person has the opportunity afforded to them which adequately respects their abilities, talents and potential as individuals? As I am sure Mr Finaly fully realises, the current state of affairs is that there is no such assuarance available to a single person with disability in Ireland. Indeed, Fianna Fail and the PDs have pushed through legislation which guarantees the exact opposite is the case. And despite claims from them that vast sums of money have been invested in services for people with disability, and as was observed at the Inclusion Ireland (formerly National Association for the Mentally Handicapped in Ireland) conference in Limerick earlier this year, the evidence of that investment on the ground is very hard to find.

However well intentioned private initiatives such as the Franklin D Roosevelt Award, First Tee and The Tiger Woods Foundation may be, they are no substitute for adequately funded and assured services for everyone affected by disability. There is a place for such initiatives and they should not be denigrated as irrelevant or unimportant. But they do not guarantee, for instance, adequate educational input, occupational and physiotherapy and other forms of vital supports, which are seriously lacking for many children and adults in Ireland. Unless we as a community are prepared to share our prosperity with every citizen on equal terms, the position of people with disability is unlikely ever to improve greatly. We will not see their participation nor benefit from their great potential and our society is the poorer for that. We need to ensure that every child can achieve what Aisling Beacom has. For that to happen it is imperative for us to discard the Disability Act of 2005 and the Education of Persons with Special Needs Act 2004, both of which pieces of legislation are forcing us in a diametrically opposite trend to that which Fergus Finlay claims to see. I invite Mr Finlay and anyone who is concerned to see genuine, lasting improvements in services for people with disability to join with us in pursuing that objective at the forthcoming general election.

Miriam Cotton
National Coordinator
Disability Election Pledge Alliance