Parents cannot afford to replace van used to bring son to hospital
Margaret Butler and Michael Power, from Clonmel in Tipperary, cannot afford to replace the van they use to bring their son to hospital appointments.
Michael Power reached out to us in an attempt to highlight the lack of financial support available for carers in Ireland.
His five-year-old son, Alex, suffers from an array of illnesses, as first reported by Órla Ryan in TheJournal.ie.
Severe cerebral palsy, epilepsy, sleep apnoea and cerebral visual impairment all mean that Alex must attend hospital regularly - often in Dublin. He is also fed through a tube.
Butler and Power bought a wheelchair-accessible van two years ago in order to be able to bring Alex to school and his appointments.
The 2008 Renault Trafic cost them €15,000 and they are still repaying the Credit Union loan they took out to buy it.
They've clocked up over 273,000km on the van since 2014 and Power says it's now on "it's last legs".
They are terrified of what will happen in the event that the van breaks down. They will no longer have any transport suitable for Alex's needs.
"Alex cannot travel in an ordinary car."
The couple have said they receive an allowance of about €1,200 a year under the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers Scheme operated by the Revenue Commissioners. This barely covers fuel and tax costs.
More details about the scheme can be read here.
Margaret says: “Add a special needs tag to anything and the price just goes up – it was €15,000 for the car and it’s a few years old. If it wasn’t adapted it would cost half of that."
The Department of Health doesn't provide any financial support towards the purchase of wheelchair-accessible vehicles. All Mobility Allowance and Motorised Transport Grant schemes were closed in February 2013.
The Government also rolled out a €1m wheelchair-accessible grant scheme for taxi drivers.
Power says: "Why couldn't this have rolled out to the real people that need it, and this was the same Government that got rid of the mobility drivers' grant."
Alex's family have set up a Go Fund Me page in order to raise the funds to buy him a new wheelchair-accessible vehicle. You can visit the page here.
