A carer spoke out about the difficulties she and her colleagues face and how disabled people are let down by services.

Jaimie Williams is a carer from Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, for her husband and two children, one of whom has complex needs. Her experience with the system has led her to lead a public protest in town and co-founder of The Phoenix Rising Network.

Jaimie’s child was referred from the Assessment of Needs (AoN) process and towards the Child Disability Network Team (CDNT), as it was promoted for vulnerable families as a faster and more effective route to therapies.

“We basically started the whole process of asking for an initial assessment when he was about three and a half, and the doctor assessed him when he was four and a half.

“We wanted to make the best choice for our child, we wanted to take the advice.

After years of waiting, Ms Williams’ son finally got an appointment with a psychologist.

After the appointment, however, they were left traumatized. Ms Williams does not blame the doctor, but says there needs to be better training.

“You have a certain expectation of a disability service. This is not a reflection of frontline workers doing their best in a terrible, terrible situation. This is a reflection of how it is being managed, which is a failure.

“You would expect, at least hardly for a disability service, that they would have the appropriate training in dealing with disabilities. It’s the least you could ask of a disability team, and it wasn’t there, and it was. very clear throughout the assessment process for my son.

“You have a whole generation of kids who have a system failure. They’re not getting services, they’re not getting therapies that are critical to their ability to succeed.

“They get out of the system without ever getting a single therapy, and they’re put into a failing housing system, so you have young people being put into nursing homes and other inappropriate settings like hospital wards. right

“It’s failure, after failure, after failure. Just think about what happens when I’m not here to fight for this?”

There are over 13,000 children waiting for their first contact from CDNT, of which 444 are in Enniscorthy.

Adding to this is the number of vacancies in the system, with 19 vacancies in Wexford town, where 23 jobs have been allocated.

As citizens go to the polls in the General Election many carers are critical of the way they have been treated by the outgoing government.

While many of the political parties have campaign promises for disabled people, Ms Williams says there is a need for a dedicated Disability Minister, as well as an end to means testing for carers.

“The means test has to go for care and disability.

“One of the richest countries in the EU should not be forced into poverty.

“Investing in disabled people and in education, that’s another thing that’s really necessary. We need to be investing in our people, and these people have been left to rot.”

One of the most controversial moments of this election campaign was the encounter between Fine Gael leader Simon Harris and Charlotte Fallon, a disability worker with St Joseph’s Foundation.

In a clip that has gone viral, footage shows Mr Harris canvassing in Kinturk as Ms Fallon tells the Taoiseach that “carers have been ignored” and that the “Government has done nothing for us”.

Mr Harris responds with “no, not at all” and “that’s not true” several times before shaking her hand.

Ms Williams says that is how care workers are usually treated.

“The only reason he apologized was because he was caught on camera. That’s my immediate response because carers are treated that way every day by the structure of the system.

“We’re kept under the thumb, we’re kept below the poverty line, and we’re expected to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the rest of our lives.”