Gavan Reilly: ‘You can sue me’ isn’t a sales pitch

Longtime readers of this column will know I’ve been upfront about my experiences as the father of a child with intellectual disabilities – and my frustration with how deplorable the services are for kids like my daughter. Over time we’ve built up a reasonable network of parents in similar situation as our own, many of whom have had to go to the High Court in pursuit of rights that clearly exist under law. For example, a horrendous number of parents have felt the need to go down the legal route to get an ‘assessment of need’, which children are entitled to receive by law within six months of referral. More then recruit solicitors because

even though the law promises a ‘service statement’ of appropriate therapies, few receive it in time.

All of which is to say that I wasn’t the only one who was slightly irked at Roderic O’Gorman’s intervention in the referendums last week. The children’s minister - who is personally responsible for both referendum proposals, as they came from within his department - said a Yes vote in the carers referendum would allow such carers to sue the State if they felt certain obligations were not being met.

The minister doesn’t live under a rock and can’t possibly claim he doesn’t know such lawsuits happen often anyway – responsibility for the disability sector has been within his mammoth brief for a couple of years now. He knows fully well that the HSE is regularly at the wrong end of legal cases because the obligations upon the State, in the law of the land already written in black and white, are not met.

In that light it’s hardly the most encouraging sign that, while not promising any specific tangible improvements as a direct result of a referendum on care, the minister simply offers the easier ability to sue his office if things aren’t delivering. Join the queue.