Demo to make a FUSS in city

“Come for that family that you don't see at the GAA game on a Sunday morning anymore.”

Those were the words of Rebecca O'Riordan, Cork Chair of Families Unite for Services and Support (FUSS) who are planning a day of action in Cork city this Saturday.

The demonstration is demanding urgent action from the Government to address, she said, the long-running crisis within children's disability services in Ireland.

It will be the organisation’s third day of action in recent months, having previously confronted An Taoiseach Micheál Martin on his way into Cork City Hall in June.

Since then, FUSS members say many facts have come to light that further emphasise the failed roll out of the Progressing Disability Services (PDS), a national programme to reorganise children's disability services in Ireland.

FUSS is also questioning the recent news that the HSE has invested €38 million since 2017 on fees associated with trainee clinical psychologists but failed to recruit a single newly qualified psychologist during the same period.

According to figures provided by FUSS, over 100,00 children are currently on wait lists across the country, including 7,200 children awaiting psychology review and over 13,450 on primary care speech and language therapy (SLT) lists.

Ms O’Riordan said families in Cork and around the country are “locked into their houses” due to the lack of children’s disability services in Cork.

“There are so many children that are neglected at this point. It’s from a physical perspective, it’s from a sensory perspective, it’s emotional,” said Ms O’Riordan.

She continued: “Children are losing mobility. They’re not getting the equipment, they’re not getting the physio, then they are having to go in for surgery. Then the surgery is being cancelled because they’re saying, ‘Oh, there’s no point giving them this surgery because they won’t get the physio required to get benefit of it’.

“All they’re doing is kicking a financial can down the line and robbing these children of their chance of a childhood.”

On 15 June, members and supporters of FUSS handed Micheál Martin a letter containing the stories of 30 “broken” families who are struggling to get the services their children need.

Ms O’Riordan said: “We just thought if we could physically put it into his hands, he can’t act like he doesn’t know that it’s happening anymore.

“I have been in contact with his office to try to get him to lobby on my own daughter’s behalf and he often has. But the issue is that after 2 and a half years of them lobbying on her behalf, things are actually worse than they were when they started that lobbying.

“It’s nothing personal, but at the same time, as the leader of this government and as the leader of this country, you have to stop at some point and look at what’s happening in your constituency and take a little bit of ownership of it.

“He needed to send a very strong public message several months ago and he did not do that, and people in Cork will not forget that,” she concluded.

Saturday’s demonstration will begin at 2pm on Grand Parade in the city centre. All are welcome to attend, FUSS members said.