By Sean Moriarty

A Killarney family have welcomed news that that fixed track hoists will be included in the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability Schemes.

Parents Steve and Teresa O’Mahony have been fighting government bureaucracy for months.

The urgently need a hoist fitted to their home to help them care for their daughter Alexis. She suffers from a pyruvate dehydrogenase, PDH, deficiency and she has a brain injury. She has cerebral palsy, quadriplegia, visual impairment, a subluxation of her hip and is at high risk of aspiration.
In recent months the family were dealing with Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the Department of Health, in an effort to get a grant to fit a hoist to their home.

None of the government departments were willing to commit to the scheme until political intervention by TDs Pa Daly and Norma Foley and Tralee councillor Jim Finucane.

It was announced this week that that fixed track hoists will be included in the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability Schemes.

“It is a big relief that funding has finally been reinstated and a clear pathway now exists in the years ahead for those across Ireland that require ceiling track hoists,” Steve told the Killarney Advertiser.

“Access to the scheme without worry now exists and enables people with a disability to live day to day with their dignity and comfort protected. It should never have taken almost three years to get the legislation in place and a lot needs to be learned in terms of engagement and communication channels between government departments.

“Ultimately it is some of society's most vulnerable that suffered because of the impasse and it is also society's most vulnerable and their families and carers that will benefit enormously from the scheme. A thank you to all Kerry politicians that engaged on this in various times.”