Letters to the Editor: Government's hollow promises on disability
Micheál Martin made the comment about disability policy when announcing the new programme for government agreed by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Regional Independents. Picture: Maxwell's/PA
The recent hollow promise of Micheál Martin that he wanted the new government to be a defining one in respect of disability is par for the course.
So facile to claim he wants something to happen, so meaningless to use the adjective ‘defining’, and so redundant to vaguely construe the term ‘in respect of disability’. All of which adds up to zilch in terms of fundamental streamlining or galvanising of delivery of services. Citizens living with the challenges of disability need honesty, transparency, and above all respect.
Mr Martin has form in the vacuity stakes... lots of it. And wasn’t it he who spawned that wondrous white elephant, the HSE, where middle managerial ‘organisms’ fester and flux without challenge or accountability ad infinitum while coal-face clinical staff dwindle and fade. Wasn’t the same Mr Martin renowned for his unbridled capacity to order report after report into all and every issue which merely delivered delay and obfuscation.
The current notion of recruiting clinical therapists for schools with a view to placating the tsunami of parental dismay at the appalling disability waiting list is an ill-judged fallacy. Superficially it purports to provide some solution. In reality it’s hot air. How that is going operate in terms of clinical governance, integration, and supervision breeds a cloud of fudge, to say nothing of the adage: Therapy in schools is like oil in water — they don’t mix.
I know this only too well from tortured experience in many Deis schools and ASD educational units over the years, as a clinical therapist. As I’m regularly informed and acutely aware, it still holds across the board.
Newly installed Disability Minister Norma Foley will be on a hiding to nothing in trying to implement this erroneous protocol. Her education background will be of scant advantage. One simply has to pity those who are in the throes of the struggle for appropriate disability services. God bless them.
In the past week, eight healthcare workers from these shores attended a five-day gathering outside the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.
In attendance with multiple other healthcare professionals from across the world, their sole focus was to represent the perennially afflicted people of Palestine in calling for an end to the genocide, the immediate release of detained healthcare workers and civilians, as well as the restoration of Red Cross access to Palestinians imprisoned by Israeli authorities.
In addition, they called on the UN to ensure protection of healthcare workers to establish a safe humanitarian corridor for the transfer of aid as well as movement of sick and frail patients to an optimal hospital setting.
Despite multiple attempts by Irish healthcare workers to meet our UN representative Denise Keogh and outline our objectives, no formal meeting occurred. Has the moral integrity of our UN representatives fallen so low that a cry for help that the fundamental and enshrined rights of healthcare workers to provide safe care for the afflicted in Palestine cannot be supported? I fear for the rights of healthcare professionals in all conflict zones if this dangerous and illegal precedent is allowed to persist.
In reference to your publication’s comprehensive coverage of the consequences of Storm Éowyn, with a particular focus on the loss of electric power to so many, that has resulted in so many, many instances of real suffering.
Society in the past has risen to the challenges of crises, by responses such as the development of first aid organisations.
In other countries where there is the greater risk of fire, there are trained emergency firefighters to assist the professionals.
Given the many times that first power and now water connections are being lost due to the weather, is it not time to develop emergency response teams here that are trained to assist the dedicated professional workers from home and abroad in electricity services, whether through an enhanced Civil Defence or a dedicated Climate Defence?
“Fail to prepare, prepare to fail” is what comes to mind regarding the National Emergency Co-ordination Group. The excuse that they had to wait until the extent of the damage was assessed before they could apply to the EU for assistance from other countries, doesn’t stand scrutiny.
Both Irish Water and the ESB Networks should have had sufficient generators on standby ready to click in, in the event of the Storm Éowyn emergency which was forecast several days in advance. They had the last 20 or more years in which to plan and purchase standby generators using the overflowing coffers of the State, or the €13-plus Apple billions.
It’s a credit to local organisations and community groups that they had the foresight to have standby generators, so that communities devastated by the storm could at least have some basic services and a cup of tea, Barry’s of course.
Storm Éowyn has provided the best argument so far for putting most power lines underground.
Storms as yet unnamed may strengthen that argument but the rationale is obvious — as the scores of thousands still without power will attest.
A Department of Defence ministerial brief, made public, advises Defence Minister Simon Harris that tolerance for Ireland’s neutrality among joint EU/Nato members is wearing thin (‘Many EU nations in ‘full war preparation mode’, raising pressure on Irish neutrality’ — Irish Examiner, January 29).
There are two odd things about this statement.
First, it’s based on redacted text in the version made available for public download from the Department of Defence. Perhaps, like me, your reporter was easily able to circumvent the redaction simply by copying the redacted text from the PDF and pasting into a text document. Or was a special favour granted to the media?
Second, “tolerance” of Ireland’s neutrality is widespread in Ireland. In fact, a majority of people more than tolerate it — they like it. Joint EU/Nato members don’t make Irish policy, so they will have to tolerate Irish neutrality whether they like it or not.
Is Simon Harris being “warned” by his officials about attitudes abroad so as to fortify him against the pressure he’ll likely face from EU partners to abandon neutrality? Or is it to provide him with a useful argument for chipping away at neutrality? The latter, I don’t doubt. I suggest the Department of Defence sees to securing its documents, and leaves the securing of Ireland’s peace to the tried-and-tested policy of neutrality.
National security is a natural desire and necessity for all people — and the more so in a changing world so full of anxieties.
Many people assume that security is the equivalent of arms and military hardware. There is nothing necessary about that assumption.
There have been many studies of non-military and civilian-based defence systems with strong indications that they are viable and can be developed. They are not pacifist strategies and elements of them have been incorporated into defence systems in some European countries.
The wonder is that so few, if any, of our politicians have been willing to study the viability of such non-military defence options in our own country as part of a positive neutrality.
A security policy must be considered inadequate that does not include a comprehensive review of non-military defence. A wide-based national and open consideration of these non-military options is a priority.
It’s interesting to see that some language schools are offering joint Tesol (teaching English to speakers of other languages) and Stem (science, technology, engineering, and maths) courses. These courses would teach English in the morning and Stem in the afternoon.
The issue is that even though a student’s language skills have been assessed, if you are teaching Stem jointly, and seriously, you must assess the student’s skill levels in the Stem subjects too. English language skills do not always correspond to competency in science. A student could have advanced English, intermediate web design, and beginners maths.
Learning English can be a great adventure, and if a course is run properly, it can benefit both the student’s career and their personal development.
However, if a language school is offering a course that claims to have a joint Stem element, the Stem subjects have to be approached as separate subjects. This requires full needs assessments for science, technology, education and mathematics. Otherwise, a summer educational trip to a language school could discourage students from pursuing much-needed Stem subjects in their future learning.
