James Mc Donagh, father of special needs child, Angel Mc Donagh, made national headlines when he and his daughter were thrown out of the Green Party special conference last month when he tried to raise the issue of the State’s failure to provide the educational and housing needs his daughter requires.
Since then, James has continued his protests and faced threats from the HSE to take his daughter from him if he continued to campaign on the issue.
Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett and the People Before Profit Alliance had come to his support and helped him in his protests.
James’s persistence has now paid off as the HSE has withdrawn its previous threats and St Michael’s House has finally backed down and allowed Angel to be enrolled.
However the issue of adequate resources to meet his daughter’s needs still needs to be resolved.
In a statement James McDonagh welcomed the latest moves from the special needs school that previously refused to enrol his daughter, to now offer her a place in the school.
The statement continued:-
He has also welcomed a significant change of heart on the part of the HSE, who yesterday offered to provide the therapy services she requires, which previously they had failed to do.
Mr Mc Donagh believes that it only because of his protest actions and the publicity they have received in the media that the “miraculous change in heart” by the Department of Education and HSE has now occurred
However, Mr Mc Donagh also made it clear the school offer from St Michael’s House must be matched by a pledge from the Department of Education to provide the necessary resources to the school, if it is to be able to cater for her.
Mr Mc Donagh warned that, both the he and the school had concurred at a meeting earlier this week, that any arrangement to enrol Angel would likely fail if the Department of Education failed to provide the extra resources the school needs, following staff cutbacks earlier this year.
Angel’s special needs were clearly set out in set out in the medical reports on her condition, and were fully acknowledged by St Michael’s House, but the Department of Education were still refusing to provide the necessary resources to the school to meet them.
James Mc Donagh said:
“I very much welcome the offer of a place to Angel by St Michaels’ House. In my meeting with them earlier this week and subsequent calls they made it clear that they always wanted to enrol her but that the lack of resources available to them as a result of cut backs and staff reductions meant they could not cater properly for her needs.
They have now offered her place because of Angel’s terrible plight. However, they have made absolutely crystal clear that they are not properly resourced to cater for her and have grave concerns that the whole arrangement will collapse very quickly unless the Department of Education provide those resources, in the form of replacement staff for those lost earlier this year.
Equally, I also very much welcome, what I can only describe as miraculous change of heart on the part of the HSE, following a meeting with them yesterday, where they offered to provide the therapy Angel needs – which they had previously failed to provide – and also withdrew last weeks threat to take Angel into care, if I continued my public protest.
I can only conclude that it is because of my protests and the publicity they have received, and the assistance I was given by the People Before Profit Alliance, that this change of heart has occurred.
However, this situation will not be resolved and we may very quickly be back to square one unless the Department of Education now comes forward with the resources Angel and St Michael’s House need. I will continue my campaign until we get that commitment from the Department."
Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett, who has been assisting James and Angel and who also attended the meeting with St Michael’s House added:
“It is clear that James’ determination and the public protests have moved mountains in progressing this situation from where it was a couple of weeks ago. However, the staff at St Michael’s House were absolutely clear that they remained without the necessary resources to provide fully for Angel’s needs and had very real concerns that any arrangement to take her could break down almost most immediately, unless the Department now did its part and provided the staff and resources.
It is also a very significant victory that the HSE has moved from the outrageous threat of last week to take Angel into care, to now offering her the therapy that she has been denied for so long.
While we are now moving towards some resolution of this terrible situation, it will not be over until the department relents and re-instates the required staffing and resources for the school.
The other issue that all this highlights is the absolute neglect by the government of the disabled and disabled children and the disastrous effect cuts will have in this area. At the meeting with the school, we were taken around the building and shown how utterly inadequate the building is for these vulnerable and in need children. The school have been fighting for 15 years for a purpose built building; they even had the site donated to them, but the government has failed to provide the funding.
When you see this sort of neglect of the most vulnerable in our society, it puts into perspective the vast amounts paid to politicians in expenses for luxury travel or the millions spent in recent years on Dail refurbishments.
Let’s hope Angel’s case will help in forcing a change in priorities to put the needy, the vulnerable and especially children first.
