The mother of an eight-year-old with learning disability told a Kerry County Council meeting yesterday she did not want to be back in 10 years' time "looking for services for my daughter".
The Special Olympics athletes arriving this week were very welcome in Ireland, but "we should start with our own", Ms Breda O'Gorman said in a special address to the council.
Recent cutbacks in respite services had had "a devastating effect" on her family, who often had sleepless nights as a result of her daughter's behavioural problems.
For the first four years of her child Carol's life, Ms O'Gorman said she was isolated from the outside world. "My only outings were to Enable Ireland and the Brothers of Charity for physiotherapy, and occupational and speech therapy - having a child who needs 24-hour care did this to me.
"No one could give me what I needed most, 'a break' ; not to go socialising, just time to be a parent to my other three children, who were very young at the time."
Entitlements were a well-kept secret, she said, and dealing with health boards she had felt humiliated and degraded as a mother and a human being, and this continued to be the case.
Her daughter suffered from health problems and she has to be taken to England for treatment. The Southern Health Board pays for one adult to accompany her even though she now needs two people with her.
"When a mother gives birth to a child with a disability she is not trained in special needs. But for her to get someone to look after her child that person has to be qualified. The 17-year-old down the road that everyone else gets to babysit won't do."
Services in Listowel have been cut drastically because the St Mary of the Angels care facility in Kerry was in debt. "Because of my daughter's behavioural problems, my family will often be without sleep for three to four nights in a row."
Most teenagers had options for the future, but those with special needs did not. "As a mother my goal is to be a voice for my daughter. A voice that's going to be heard. I intend to fight for her right to independent living."
Ms O'Gorman called on the Taoiseach to resign as patron of the European Year of People with Disabilities.
The group Wake Up Call for Special Needs also called on Mr Ahern to resign in a further address to the meeting.
"The Taoiseach is fully prepared to bathe in the glory of being the first country to host the Special Olympics outside the United States. But what does he do for his own people," said Ms Noreen Buckley, chairwoman of the group.
Cllr John Brassil (FF) said there had been a great improvement since 1997 in services for those with special needs.