“That is no country for old men” wrote WB Yeats in his famous poem, “Sailing to Byzantium”, feeling a cold chill of unwelcome for an aging poet in the society of his time.
Speaking of the society created in the Ireland of today by the economic and political establishment, we might rephrase that line to, “That is no country for the vulnerable” as chill winds blow for two distinct groups, the intellectually disabled and their carers and the asylum seekers of Mosney.
Over the weekend we heard many stories – this time from the West – about the devastating effect of cutbacks in services for people with intellectual disabilities. The Health Service Executive West is seeking new cuts in the budget of the principal service providers, the Brothers of Charity. These will cause enormous hardship if implemented.
The stories we heard from the West mirrored exactly what we wrote here two weeks ago in relation to the same kind of cuts being imposed on the Daughters of Charity Service in Dublin. Following a public meeting of those affected, Mimi Duffy gave a graphic picture in last week’s Mail of the grave difficulties which these cuts mean for those affected.
Parents and siblings pointed out how much they need critical services such as respite care. They speak about carers at breaking point from the stress of permanent responsibility for profoundly disabled members of their families and the real threat that the withdrawal of even minimal respite opportunities will tilt some over the edge.
The vulnerabilities of asylum seekers currently living in the Mosney centre is of quite a different kind but no less real. About one hundred and fifty of them received letters last week from the Reception and Integration Agency of the Department of Justice telling them that they would be required to leave Mosney, essentially to cut costs.
Speaking on Monday morning in Mosney to people who received these letters, it was obvious that the prospect of such a forcible move would be very traumatic for many. The fact is that many have been living in this centre for years, awaiting a determination on their application for refugee status or awaiting the results of appeals against a previous refusal. Naturally in that time they form friendships and bonds of many kinds with other people in the centre and with people and organisations in the surrounding communities.
A forced move to a different part of the country would sunder what in reality has become a village community. As the individuals concerned have a disposable income of only €19.10 each week, it would simply be impossible to keep a real link with their friends who would either remain in Mosney or might also have been dispersed further afield. This would cause a real alienation among many who already find themselves far from home, in a strange culture and very confined in the lives they can lead.
The residents of Mosney speak highly of the facility and of the staff there. But they have bitter words for many of the procedures imposed on them by government policy. Very many have been waiting for four, five and six years for decisions on their cases. These are able bodied people for the most part but absolutely forbidden to work. This reduces their lives to, as one said to me, “eating, sleeping and watching television.” This enforced idleness, along with some of the other mental stress involved has had serious consequences for some of the more mentally fragile residents of Mosney with reports of severe psychiatric problems being suffered by some.
Like those with problems of disability, the asylum seekers are the scapegoats of the heartless system that builds economic structures based on the greed of a powerful minority. They are the victims of the devastated economic landscape left by the speculators, big bankers and Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrat policy from 1997. This is on top of the bigger international picture of a brutal world economic order which condemns the populations of entire countries to poverty, political instability and wars which forced people to leave countries like the Congo, Somalia and Iraq in the first place.
It seems that the Reception and Integration Agency is now saying that it will not force residents to leave Mosney against their wills. This is to be welcomed. Hopefully it will spare us also the inevitable blaming by a few of those like the asylum seekers with responsibility for the cruel cuts to the intellectually disabled and the disingenuous catch cry that “we should look after our own first.” The fact is that if our economy and society was organised for the needs of the majority rather than hijacked for the greed of the few, there would be more than enough for excellent public services for all.
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