Father to hold Dail protest for Special Needs Daughter denied Education, Medical Treatment & Proper Housing .

James Mc Donagh, will hold a protest at 1pm on Tuesday October 20th outside the Dail to demand education, medical treatment and proper housing for his special needs daughter Angel Mc Donagh (11 years)

James and Angel hit the national headlines in the last week when he walked into the special Green Party convention in the RDS, demanding to speak to Green leader, Minister John Gormley and was forcibly evicted by security and Gardai.

Angel suffers from closed Spina Bifida, Global Developmental Disorder (affecting motor skills) and ADHD, requiring special needs education, which the state has failed to provide for over a year.

Angel has been failed severally by all the state agencies with responsibility to provide for her education, health and housing needs - the Department of Education, the HSE and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council.

As well as failing to provide schooling for Angel for the last year, the state has failed to provide her with the occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech therapy she needs for her condition.

James, Angel and his other child Michael are also forced to live on a completely unsuitable halting site on the west pier in Dun Laoghaire because of the failure of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council to provide proper housing for the family for over three years.

In the course of his efforts to access the necessary education, medical help and housing for Angel, James has been made aware that under-resourcing and recently imposed cut-backs in frontline services are responsible for his daughter's and family's plight.

While trying to look after his children, James is also currently studying social work - prompted to do so by his family's experience and the belief our social services need radical reform.

Recently, James approached Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) to seek assistance in highlighting Angel's case and organising a campaign on her behalf. PBPA are currently contacting the various agencies dealing with Angel to demand action on her case and are mobilising support for James and Angels' protest on Tuesday.

James Mc Donagh said:

"I have no choice but to protest. I have done everything to try and get Angel into a school that can provide for her needs. Every school I have gone to refuses to take her, saying they don't have the resources or no longer have them because of cutbacks.

I've been given the run-around by every agency of the state - despite daily appeals to one or other or all of them. Whether it's the HSE, Department of Education, the Council or half a dozen special needs schools I have gone to, they all tell me there is nothing they can do or pass me onto someone else.
I tried to bring my daughter's case to the attention of John Gormley and the Greens at their conference. Instead of helping me, they physically threw myself and Angel out, with the help of security and Gardai. It's a disgrace.
What am I supposed to do?

They have money to bail out banks and pay Brendan Drumm massive bonuses but refuse to provide my daughter with education and proper care. How can that be right?"

Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett said:

"This is an absolutely shocking case. To treat a vulnerable child with special needs in this way beggars belief. Under the most difficult of circumstances, Angel's father has done everything to try and get his daughter an education and get her medical needs provided for, yet he comes up against a brick wall of cut-backs, indifference, and bureaucracy. Angel's plight shows the shocking human reality behind the cutbacks

and the under-funding of our vital services. It brings home the true obscenity of billions being poured into banks and hundreds of thousands paid in salaries and bonuses to people like Brendan Drumm, while the most vulnerable in our society are being savaged with cuts."