Letters to the Editor: Parents of children with special needs should get full support
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Regarding the article ‘Campaigner hits out at ‘farcical’ announcement on special education needs organisers’ (Irish Examiner, May 9), I feel blessed that I got everything that my son needs — exactly when he needed it the most — to develop a bespoke development programme that has made him achieve incredible results.
My nightmare is with the type of people that they hire to do this job.
Some are very supportive, engaging with the family to find ways to improve the situation and do a remarkable job.
Others are completely unprofessional, show zero empathy, have an arrogant attitude where they don’t listen to the parents and don’t care about what is the best option for the kids.
They don’t support anyone, the opposite in fact, they make sure to make the life of those around them miserable.
I felt that if someone is not walking in my direction, to have my back and support me in my decisions, they are not welcome.
I much prefer to fight this battle alone until I find people with my heart, my mentality, and that share the same point of view to work together towards the same objective.
My circumstances and fears about my son’s future are hard enough to waste time and energy with people that are going in a different direction.
I attended the opening evening of the Robert Boyle Summer School in Waterford.
This year’s iteration endeavoured to parse, probe, and peruse the thorny labyrinth of how, where, and when formalised scientific research can, could, or should entwine with the arts and humanities zone of creative enquiry.
Such is a protracted quandary which has had something of a troubled history — with competing mindsets often seeking partisan, nay dismissive, dominance rather than authentic hybridised mutual accommodation.
The human condition naturally tends towards innate creativity and ingrained curiosity, unless thwarted by coercion or circumstance.
The key queries for all and sundry, is who pulls the strings and who “milks” the purse?
The overlords to such determinants sadly hover in the “lucre lane”, with bottom-line outcome unfortunately measured more via the coffers of the corporations than societal wellbeing in the round replete with authentic, wholesome equitability of distribution.
The ongoing surge of Stem subject promotion to the nation’s school pupils, designed so that the techno/pharma/industrial players can recruit copiously to fill their assembly lines of ever-burgeoning production, and thus eventual massive profit margins, conjures the vista of a monochrome “roboticism” of sorts evolving — wherein the generous holism of rounded education development is sacrificed on the altar of employment expediency, an altar worshipped by Government for its perennial revenue potential.
Thus, is the national power-play pyramid firmly loaded atop with corporate influence, the Government below pandering to their pleading, with the eventual contributing citizens mere processed pawns in a contrivance of control, never afforded the full experience of broad-spectrum liberation of thought and awareness, where creativity and curiosity can flourish?
Let’s try to stem this inexorable tide before we’ve crossed the Rubicon of capitulation to the world of “cyberised” economic units, AI, and the runaway debilitation of independent flexibilities of thought.
Let’s cultivate the arts and sciences to grow together apace woven through each other in a spirit of selfless decency and respectful decorum, leaving hyper-careerism, pernicious profiteering, and mass manipulation in the refuse bin of yesteryear.
Regarding the recent HSE employment figures, the increased workforce has been disproportionately made up of non-clinical, non-front facing admin and management staff.
Now, the front facing clinicians are impacted by the “recruitment embargo” or “pause”, as we are told to call it.
Robert Watt has the audacity to blame clinical staff , and to again suggest that we do more and more with less and less, while those in admin and management roles do less and less with more and more.
Word on the ground is that this “pay and numbers” farce will tell us that 2022 staffing figures will be maintained.
For us clinicians who deliver services, Robert Watt needs to address the issues of more regression, more inability to deliver the quality, evidence-based clinical services that our patients deserve, and greater risks to their care.
Don’t dare blame clinical staff who are over-burdened and under-valued.
I speak as a dedicated, committed speech and language therapist who despairs at the lack of political will to support our clinical services and the people who need our services.
As a resident of Rosslare Harbour, I’m observing with interest the events unfolding in Dublin 2.
Last week, the tents occupied by international protection applicants outside the IPAS office in Mount St were taken away.
Their occupants were moved to alternative accommodation in South Dublin.
This week, 160 tents erected on the banks of the Grand Canal, 350m from Mount St, were moved in what was described as a multi-agency operation.
Personnel from Dublin City Council, Waterways Ireland, An Garda Síochána, and other bodies completed the move in little more than an hour.
And, as in Mount St, steel barricades were erected to prevent further “shanty towns” developing, as An Taoiseach termed it.
The canal tent occupants have been moved to locations in Crooksling, the former mental hospital site in Dundrum, and unspecified locations in Wicklow.
It is a step forward in so far as at least those seeking asylum here will now have sanitary and medical facilities available.
A representative of The South Georgian Core spoke of chaos being brought onto the streets of the capital due to the broken asylum system. “It has to end,” he clearly stated.
But, the uncomfortable question yet again arises: Are the even Dublin post codes sharing a fair and equitable part in sheltering those fleeing from invasion and persecution?
I live happily adjacent to an IPAS facility here in Rosslare Harbour.
We also have another former hotel dedicated to IPAS use, along with a hotel dedicated to sheltering citizens from Ukraine.
Overall, we have over 300 people in such circumstances living amongst us.
This compares with the total IPAS figure of 274 in the entire Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown administrative area.
There is currently a peaceful protest in Rosslare Harbour because a facility being constructed as a nursing home was earmarked to house another 160 IPAS applicants.
Personally, I do not support this protest. However, given that the buildings in Dublin 4 and 2 which formerly were Jury’s Hotel and Baggot St Hospital still remain empty, what conclusions can be drawn? Can it really, really be the case that, in 2024, the old political maxims still apply?
That there is still an elite with power and influence who consider themselves apart and are supported in this by the decision-makers.
It looks very like it to me.