REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT BROTHERS OF CHARITY SERVICES CLARE CONFERENCE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT BROTHERS OF CHARITY SERVICES CLARE CONFERENCE “TRANSFORMING SERVICES – OUR JOURNEY SO FAR”
Dia dhíbh, a chairde. Tá lúcháir mhór orm bheith i bhur measc inniu ag an ócáid speisialta seo agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl díbh don fáilte a raibh fíor agus flaithiúil.
I am delighted to be here to-day on the occasion of this Brothers of Charity Clare Services Conference with its focus on ‘Transforming Services’. I would like to thank Mary Kealy, Chief Executive, Brothers of Charity Services, Clare for the kind invitation to attend.
For people with disabilities the concept “transforming services” has to be more than a promise, it has to be a lived reality if they are to be able to live life fully and on their own terms. Those terms, that is to say their own personal dreams, are pretty much the same as those without disability. They are not outlandish or outrageous but surprisingly modest and sensible. A decent education that opens up job opportunities, a home of their own, an independent life, good friends and neighbours from every walk of life, a caring community where they have a chance to make their own unique contribution, the chance to travel, to feel good about themselves, to enjoy life in all its fullness and to give to life the gift of all their abilities and talents. Yet for many generations of people with disability, those humble aspirations were as elusive as a sunny day was this summer. The story though is different today and getting more different by the day thanks to you and people like you.
Ireland has come quite a journey in terms of services for people with disability and, if we have, then the Brothers of Charity Services here in Clare can say with considerable justification that they have helped lead the way. From a largely institution based approach to a community based approach, from a patchy set of services designed from above, to a national “nothing about us without us” process Ireland has, thanks to your advocacy and experience, begun to grow up when it comes to dealing with disability issues. And this Conference points up Clare Services determination to avoid complacency and to remain ever fresh, ever curious about improving services.
Sometimes we only appreciate how much we have progressed when we look back – I think of the first purpose built service in Stewarts Hospital, the involvement of the psychiatric hospitals in the provision of care, the development of a range of support services by various religious orders and the growing involvement of voluntary organisations founded by parents, families and others involved with people with disabilities. I also think of the gradual growth of residential and day care provision and of the special school system, training centres, sheltered workshops and respite and crucially of an informal advocacy service which in time grew into a national phenomenon.
From these beginnings we have now moved to much more sophisticated, personalised, individualised focus, with greater availability of community based services, growing support for independent living, greater provision of places in mainstream schools, growing emphasis on employment and training opportunities. The focus has shifted comprehensively from disability to ability with more than a little help from the Special Olympics in 2003, when a world of athletes with intellectual disabilities descended on Ireland and in giving sport and fun the best of themselves, they brought out the best in us. They reset our focus, broadened and deepened our understanding of disability, humbled us with their joyful love of life and challenged us to do what we can to keep that joy in their lives by doing all we can to make our society a place where they can flourish. The success of Team Ireland at the Special Olympics last year in China and already at the Paralympics in Beijing showcases to us the talent and tenacity of our citizens with disability and what they can accomplish when given half a chance.
We have come to see clearly that people with disabilities can and do make a major contribution to the social, artistic, sporting, political and economic life of their communities and of our nation. The 1916 Proclamation spoke of us having an ambition to cherish the children of the nation equally. Only a root and branch partnership the length and breadth of civic society can deliver that ambition and one very telling characteristic of the disability services culture you have helped to design and develop is the strong ethos of partnership. Service users, their carers and families play a significant role along with the political, the community and the professional sectors involved in designing and delivering services. To get this far has taken huge combined effort including considerable funding both private and public, political will, involving key legislation and education of the public at large. Now this sector has real momentum, confidence and clout. The challenge is to maintain that hard earned traction so that the process of transformation does not slow down or fall into the doldrums.
The Clare Services vision of ‘Love and Respect towards a full and valued Life’ brings Ireland closer to being the fully inclusive society we strive for, a place where the talents of all are encouraged to blossom, where the talents and contribution of none are wasted. We have learnt from bitter experience that if we marginalise, we cause unforgivable loss and cruel waste to the individual and his or her family and we stand diminished as a society. You are determined that those days are over and that our future will be as innovative and empowering a range of disability services as it is possible to construct.
Your discussions and debates, your experience shared here will help us construct a set of next steps. No organisation has absorbed more change and transformed itself so brilliantly than the Brothers of Charity. With each change they have strengthened and enhanced their mission as providers of services to the disability sector and they have successfully transcended what might otherwise have been a dispiriting time of decline. Instead it has been a time of quite remarkable progress. I hope you enjoy being here and that through this conference you will be re-energised and re-enthused. G.B. Shaw once said ‘the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’
And if you think the unreasonable man can get things changed just wait till you see the unreasonable woman……. Between you both lies that powerful mix of persistence, loving care, vision and values which will one day soon, I hope, allow us to say that here in Ireland the children of the nation are all cherished equally.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh seo inniu. Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.