‘I just want a chance’

Among the many trying to get an audience with Minister Darragh O'Brien in Ballina last week was a local man who says he is being excluded from working because of disability.

Despite all the moves towards making Ireland a more inclusive society, little has changed for people with disabilities. That is the view of Derek Spaight (53), who said he is applying for jobs all of the time but people will not employ him due to his disability.

“I am willing to work,” Derek said. “I know plenty of people who don't want to work. I know of people on social welfare who shouldn't be on it because they are able to work. It makes me so angry... I just want a chance.”

Derek has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. He also has a BA in Politics and Sociology and a MA in Qualitative Research Methods. He has for years been a community activist in Ballina and was recently involved in setting up the new Men's Shed there. He has been a volunteer youth leader in his community for some 45 years, now doing youth work with the sons and daughters of some of the children he worked with in the past.

Derek also describes himself as a disability activist and said he would love to work as a consultant on disability issues, advocating for better rights and opportunities for disabled and non-disabled people alike. “I want to be a voice for people who don't have a voice,” he said.

‘OUT OF SIGHT’

But Derek is on social welfare, receiving €244 per week, out of which he has to pay a personal assistant to drive him and look after his day-to-day requirements. This causes him frustration, because Derek said he is capable of working and making a contribution to the State, rather than taking from it. But he said the attitude he has encountered from successive governments over the years is that they would rather he went into a nursing home, at even greater cost.

“They say they want you in the community but they don't really; they want to put you away out of sight. They tell us things are getting better. I think we're going backwards.”

One benefit Derek does receive is the Free Travel Pass. But he said this is of little use to him as buses have no space for his wheelchair.

And, despite all the well-intentioned work carried out by councils, he finds getting around independently on footpaths or roads with his wheelchair is “incredibly challenging and often impossible”.

“Ballina-Killaloe is a joke,” Derek exclaimed, adding that the problem of people parking on footpaths has been allowed to continue for years. He believed the government should allow wheelchair users to be part of the decision-making process where disabled access is concerned.

VAN FUNDRAISER

Derek recently set up an online fundraising campaign so that he could purchase a new wheelchair-accessible van, something he asserted would help him get around and engage with his community. Seeking to raise €35,000, he said he had to look for public donations because he has not received the necessary support from government bodies.

“This campaign is also about shining a light on the systematic failures faced by disabled individuals seeking independence and wanting to contribute to society,” Derek wrote in launching his campaign. “By helping me, you help raise awareness for many others in similar predicaments.”

Son of Angeline (née Molloy) of Ballyicarrido, Portroe and the late Tony (Ballinahinch), Derek is a past pupil of Ballina Primary School and St Anne's Community College. He was one of just 25 students to be awarded the Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholarship for Social Studies - to which 25,000 students applied - in 2004, at which time he was serving his second term as Equality Officer at the University of Limerick.

Commenting ahead of his meeting with the Minister for Transport last week, Derek said he was not optimistic after experiencing so much disappointment from politicians over the years.

But he said he would continue to seek gainful employment and would continue to lobby for equality rights because, in his experience, this society has a lot of work to do yet.

“Ireland is not welcoming of disabled people,” Derek said. “They say it is but it's not. Until they prove me wrong, I'm going to keep saying that.”

Derek has a GoFundMe page - 'Help Derek get his wheelchair and van!' and also recently set up an idonate page - 'Derek's Van and Wheelchair Fundraiser'.