Sir, - "Pay-back time" is the new buzz phrase in Irish politics. For the 2,500 families with a mentally-handicapped child on the waiting list for day and residential services, it is their last chance, probably in their lifetime, to get their basic rights before European Economic and Monetary Union in 1999. It would cost only a fraction of the surplus at the disposal of the Minister for Finance. Looking after a child with severe mental handicap is a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year commitment and it is life-long. Parents unstintingly pay the price to look after their children. But inevitably the parents break down, health goes, and in many cases they just cannot continue without some kind of respite care at least.
We cannot put battalions of people on the streets to protest and make our case. We must directly appeal to the public's sense of justice and fair play, to put pressure on the politicians to see that something is done about those waiting years, under intolerable pressure, for day and residential services. Recently we started yet another national campaign and An Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, launched a video, which is now on free rental at Xtravision to show what we are talking about. That video is the award-winning documentary When Happiness Is A Place for Your Child which we participated in making with Anne Daly and Experanza Productions.
This is not pay-back time for the mentally handicapped. It is their last chance. And this time the Minister for Finance cannot plead inability to pay. - Yours, etc., Gerard South, Chairman,
Limerick Parents and Friends of the Mentally Handicapped,
Corbally,
Limerick.