Comments on: Eeffing thieving bastards – you’d actually take money from the disabled?

By: Dan Sullivan

Dan Sullivan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:42:10 +0000

Annie, I have to ask if you read the original post at all. I used the term handicapped in refer to an organisation which had that has part of its name at the time. I didn’t actually use it myself in reference to people with disabilities in the post above. As I said that is the phrase we grew up using for the organisation. It now goes by the shorter name of “Kerry Parents & Friends Association” but you would have to admit that doesn’t tell you anything. It matters more to me the care and respect they have for the work they do than what their name once was.

I’m sorry that you feel that way about my Seanad bid. However, I have to wonder if you were reading my post with an open mind or just with the intention of finding something to be upset about.

By: Annie

Annie — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:56:30 +0000

As a person with a disability in Ireland I’m highly offended that a person claiming to have disability rights at the heart of his campaign is using the word handicap. It is archaeic, it is offensive and it’s quite obvious that you need to change these behaviours of your own before you can expect other people to change theirs.

Why would people go out of their way to change attitudes and behaviours towards disabled people in this country when the people who claim to be lobbying or working for them are using backward language and keeping these individuals stuck in a cycle of discrimination etc.

As someone with a disability I would request that you change your use of this word and give us some respect.

I sincerely hope that you are not elected to the Seanad this time around as I feel that your “Ah sure it’s what I’ve always done” attitude is negative and not what this country needs.

By: Dan Sullivan

Dan Sullivan — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:35:49 +0000

Tina, with respect I use the phrase that we grew up using. There is no point in changing phraseology every few years if people’s mindsets remain the same. It may be archaic but so is saying ye and I do that all the time. And I tend to think of my sister as being a sister first and foremost. And I’m contesting the NUI panel myself. I was doing so before this specific issue came up for reasons that pale somewhat in importance.

Also the etymology of handicap has more to do with betting than begging. Link below.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=handicap&searchmode=none

By: Tina Lowe

Tina Lowe — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:59:18 +0000

As a person who has acquired her blindness I fully understand what it is like to be disabled and marginalsed by our disabling society. Therefore I am going in to the Senate Elections in the NUI constituency to fight for people’s rights and will be fighting for all people who are marginalised, not just some minorities. I would hope to be able to represent and assist your sister when elected.

As an aside I am surprised by your use of the phrase “mentally handicapped” this is a thing of the past, I am not being facetious or being overly politically correct, but I believe in order to ensure that your sister and others are treated fairly and equally we must get rid of these archaeic words which are a thing of the past. (Words such as handicap refer to cap in hand, or begging. Your sister is a person first and foremost and has a disability secondly. She is not handicapped, she has a disability)

By: Kelly Miller

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By: schuhart

schuhart — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:42:33 +0000

Let me be clear. If everyone has an income, then I see no reason to not to charge everyone.

According to the OECD our educational system is grand for teaching people to read but poor at teaching them how to think by comparison to the kind of countries that we’d claim to be our peers. Your complacency on this score is frankly worrying.

Your airy dismissal of the transportation issue is meaningless in the context of our unsustainable dependance on private cars.

The point about efficiency in Health Service delivery is that the efficiency has to be delivered before the money is saved. Otherwise, you’re trying to spend money we don’t have as we haven’t saved it yet.

And I’m not suggesting that we can only do 3 things. I’m pointing out three things off the top of my head that are more important that the point you’ve raised. Put another way, we can hardly back every superficial tear-jerking cause that comes our way. We should be spending our time on the issues that really matter.

Will we go on duplicating all our posts, or just link the thread on http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?t=19533 where anyone with little else to do can watch us via the Interwebulator?

By: Dan Sullivan

Dan Sullivan — Tue, 01 May 2007 23:42:52 +0000

schuhart, yet another of our untraceable anonymous friends, can you explain to me who exactly it is that is not in receipt of an income, since you evidently view all forms of social welfare payment as a form of income, that should be a priority for free access to residential care?
As for your circular argument surplus we should have people with large scale housing where we can provide them with heat and food in a cost effective manner. Let’s call them institutions and we can have high walls and keep them off the streets away from the important people who matter in Irish society like those with big cars and fake tan.

I am 100% in favour of having enough places in the system such that the providers are competition to supply people with disabilities with the best possible care, rather than the disabled have to compete with each other to get a place.

I’m not engaged in mock shock I can tell you. As for your priorities I’ll give you the following reasons why they should be down the list compared to imposing charges on the disabled.

Class sizes. – I was a school class of more than 20 and so were most of the Celtic cubs and our parents and you know what – we worked out fine.

Transportation. – Get up a half hour earlier in the morning or move to smaller place closer to work.

Efficiency in Health Service delivery. – this should actually cost less money than the current set-up up so why is charging the disabled necessary to make this achievable?

By: schuhart

schuhart — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:32:08 +0000

We need to decide what is and priority and what isn’t. This just isn’t.

Class sizes. Transportation. Efficiency in Health Service delivery. Those are at least three issues that I can think of that come ahead of this one. Also, in your blog you mention how residential care doesn’t exactly grow on trees. I’d suggest we’d want to be in the situation where access to residential care was actually open to anyone who needs it before we felt it necessary to make it totally free to a recipient who has an income.

In the mean time, why shouldn’t people in residential care contribute towards their own maintenance? Particularly if the allowance is a state benefit, which makes the whole transaction a bit circular? This is the typical kind of tear-jerking irrelevance that nets us a political system incapable of engaging with the realities of Irish life. Its all mock shock and no substance, like the various ‘keep our dirty old hospitals open for jobs, and we’ll go to a real hospital when we’re really sick and wonder why there’s a queue’ campaigns.

By: Support Independent living for disabled adults. at Irish Election

Support Independent living for disabled adults. at Irish Election — Tue, 01 May 2007 12:03:51 +0000

[...] some of you might have been aware, I was somewhat enraged to discover that the state is planning to charge disabled adults for living in residential care [...]

By: Maman Poulet » Blog Archive » NDA and disability rights - Where are ya?

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 23:56:14 +0000

[...] the services needed to make the assessments and rights for people with disabilities happen. Dan reminded us about the new policy of government dipping into the pockets of those of us with disabilities who [...]