Gilmore raises case of paralysed men

TWO PARALYSED men due to move from the National Rehabilitation Hospital 18 months ago cannot do so because the Health Service Executive (HSE) has not provided promised funding to employ carers the men need to live independently, the Dáil has heard.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the young men, paralysed from the neck down following diving incidents, were due to move 18 months ago into new bungalows built in Greystones through Cheshire Homes, but were delayed initially because of a problem in the Department of the Environment.

This was resolved and the two bungalows were ready in January 2008, but “the HSE has not provided the money it had originally promised to employ the carers the two men will need to live independently in the bungalows”.

Hitting out at a “consistent problem of dysfunctionality” in the HSE, Mr Gilmore also cited the case of three houses in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, which “have been idle for seven years because the necessary funding has not been provided to enable the people concerned to take up occupation”.

He also said there were four other cases with similar difficulties involving the Greystones housing scheme.

“Two beds in a hospital that is hard to get into are being occupied unnecessarily, while two bungalows built with taxpayers’ money are lying idle in Greystones because the money to engage the carers has not been provided by the HSE even though it was previously promised.”

Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who promised to look into the men’s situation, acknowledged there were problems in making rehabilitation available. There were plans within the HSE to develop rehabilitation, and while there were problems there were cases that worked out very well.

In the case of the two men, “the housing was not available last year, and the money that would have been allocated for the carers of those people therefore went to someone else who was awaiting service in some other area”.

He was not suggesting there were adequate reasons for this “but obviously there is a need to try to address the issue and solve the problem as quickly as possible”.