Article Updated: 5th September
A Carrigart mum has shared her devastation after her son’s additional needs transport was cancelled at the last minute.
This week should have been a happy milestone for 18-year-old Oisin Roberts Browne starting higher education, but the sudden halting of his transport without a plan-b option has caused great distress.
Oisin’s mother Tanya had been making arrangements with the HSE for her son’s transport since last year.
It seemed as though everything was set in stone until the week before Oisin was due to start with SOAR in Letterkenny, Tanya said she received a call to say there would be a delay in the provision of a bus.
Tanya, a mum of three, says the main issue was that no alternative was offered.
This week she will drive 40 minutes to bring Oisin to Letterkenny before travelling to her own work, while her family helps with getting their two younger children ready for school.
“I’m so stressed out I can’t express it. It’s not fair,” said Tanya.
“Apparently there is currently no room on the current buses they have, so they need to get new buses, they have to go out to tender and get drivers, get the drivers vetted, and get escorts. But they have known about this for the past year.
“It’s not good enough and it’s so sad that it takes an angered parent to raise all this commotion in this day and age.”
Oisin, who has autism and cerebral palsy, had transport for 14 years when he attended Little Angels.
“If only something had been said to me earlier that there was a possibility we might not get transport and that he could use his old bus, or that they offered funding to provide a wheelchair taxi,” said Tanya.
Oisin’s first day at higher education
Tanya took to social media yesterday to highlight her situation and received many messages from other parents in similar situations.
“I can’t believe the amount of messages I get from people in the same situation for years and nothing is being done,” Tanya said.
“We need to do better, it’s in my nature to want to help people and do better and you just want that returned sometimes.”
The HSE has apologised to service users and their families who have been affected by this delay.
A spokesperson said: “The HSE confirms that formal contractual transport arrangements will be provided for those attending Disability Day service units in Donegal and Sligo within the next three weeks. In the interim the HSE will put in place local arrangements to ensure all service users are able to attend their Day Service for this period. These interim arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the service user and their families as a matter of urgency.
The HSE says it is processing transport requests for day service users as quickly as possible and is working with Local Link partners to speed up the process.
The statement concluded: “Owing to the large volume of requests for transportation, a number of factors have resulted in delays for some of those who have applied. All requests for transport require considerable assessment and planning and this is due to the organisation of new routes, which were previously not required, financial approval and allowing the relevant transport operators time to work within procurement guidelines.”