Five year-old Megan Cahill has severe cerebral palsy spastic quadriplegia. She is wheelchair-bound and lives in a third floor flat in Ballymun, Dublin. "Getting her out to the school bus every morning is a nightmare," said her mother Adrienne.
Most of the time the lifts don't work, she added.
Megan, Adrienne and Megan's two sisters, Gemma (11) and Amy (10), were, in 2001, promised a house as part of Ballymun's regeneration. However, the house they thought they would be moving into in December has not been adapted for Megan.
And adapting it at this stage, said a spokesman for Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL), "is not possible". Adrienne is angry because BRL was informed by the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) months before construction began, that Megan was wheelchair-bound.
"Megan requires a lot of equipment and this will continue to be the case," wrote the CRC's social worker to BRL in September 2002. "As Megan grows she will require more equipment and this will get larger and heavier."
In June the following year, Adrienne was invited by BRL to discuss architectural plans for the house. "When I got the plans, I saw there was no downstairs bedroom or downstairs bathroom. I asked them 'Where's the downstairs bedroom and bathroom for Megan'?"
Construction began while an occupational therapist's (OT) report was sought on Megan's requirements. In November 2003, the therapist's report said Megan "needs level access and egress", as well as a fully wheelchair-adapted home.
At this point, Adrienne was called into the BRL offices to be told the house she had been promised would not be suitable for Megan. "I can't believe they knew Megan was in a wheelchair and they went ahead and started construction without an occupational therapist's report," she said. Asked about this the spokesman said: "I suppose yes we might have got the OT report earlier but these things don't come to hand overnight."
He said Adrienne had been offered a number of other houses though, he acknowledges, two of these were too cramped for an electric wheelchair. Another could be extended but would have had no garden as a result. The latest offer she has been made is another house, to be completed by late 2006.
"What I would like is if they would build an extension on to the house we were meant to get, and put a bedroom and bathroom in that." The house is detached and, from the plans, would appear to have enough adjacent space to build an extension. The spokesman insisted this was not possible.
While we speak in the family flat, Megan is propped upright in a Rixon walker. She should be standing, her legs outstretched. However, her legs are bent at the knee as the walker is too small.
"She has a bigger one but you have to take it apart to get it in and out of the flat," explained Adrienne. She also has an electric wheelchair though the flat is too cramped to use it. Both are kept at the CRC school in Clontarf. "It's awful because she's losing precious time she needs to be out learning how to use the electric chair, how to turn corners, go up the paths.
"She does get frustrated. Sometimes when the girls are out playing she wants to go out with them. But she can't because they can't bring her down if the lifts are broken. It's very upsetting."
The spokesman said BRL would "continue to work with Adrienne to resolve her housing difficulties".
