Brendan O’Connor has hit out at the government for providing no assistance to his disabled daughter Mary.
The RTE host has revealed his two-year-old nearly died last summer, but now he and his wife have been told they can’t get any extra help.
Brendan, 45, said his daughter is lucky to be alive, after she nearly choked to death. Talking about speaking to a state psychologist about getting aid for his daughter, Brendan admitted the horrible story.
“I told the psychologist something that I hadn’t really told anyone else, something that I had not witnessed myself, but something that we all generally found too awful to conjure up by speaking it.
Trying to get help: Brendan says the state won’t help his daughter | VIPIRELAND.COM
“In summer my little girl nearly died. As in, she probably would have if she hadn’t had the incredible luck to have a heroic paramedic in the room, who only happened to be in the same place as her by total fluke.
“And he struggled, but he saved Mary from choking,” he wrote in the Sunday Independent.
“If you have autism, a physical disability, a visual impairment, severe emotional disturbance or a speech and language disorder, you automatically get up to five hours a week resource teaching hours.
“If you have Down Syndrome, you have to prove you deserve extra help,” Brendan explained.
Hope: Brendan wants Mary to have a good life
“And if you are classed as mild, you get no hours of your own; you fight it out with the kids who have problems with spelling and maths for the school’s general allocation of learning support hours.
“The psychologist has a long report to present to us but she has the decency to get to the important bit first. Mary is mild, she tells us with an apologetic smile.
“And our hearts burst with pride for our smart and funny and plucky and determined and enthusiastic little girl. And then the anger rises. Not disabled enough, the State has said.
“This one has potential, the State has said, so we won’t be helping her out. And like so many parents before us we sit politely through the rest of the report, all the time thinking, now we have to go to war again.
“And what should be the one of the happiest, proudest days of Mary’s little life so far is ruined,” he added.
