Three year housing wait for disabled woman

An Athlone woman who is forced to travel to her father"s home once a week to shower because she can"t do so at home has pleaded with Westmeath County Council to provide the disabled persons" housing grant she applied for three years ago. Rose Barry, who suffers from a range of ailments including fibromyalgia, arthritis, osteoperosis and chronic bronchitis lives in a two-storey council house in Beechville, Athlone, but because of her condition she cannot go upstairs to use the bathroom in her home. As a result, she must be taken to her father"s home once a week to have a shower and she is forced to use a commode beside her bed in the downstairs sitting room of her home. She and her husband Anthony have been lobbying for a new en-suite bedroom downstairs for the last three years. 'We"re after getting so many promises from people and when you keep getting knocked back it really dents your confidence,' Rose told the Westmeath Independent this week. A native of Assumption Road, she is in the fulltime care of Anthony, originally from Sarsfield Square, who said that publicly highlighting the case was something the couple had been forced to do as a last resort. 'I hate doing this but when you"ve been waiting for so long you have to do something. We"ve contacted local politicians and they tell us that they"ll look into it but we never hear anything back from them,' he stated The couple"s need for the disbility grant is becoming increasingly urgent, as Rose"s condition has deteriorated over the last three years. 'My arthritis in both hands has gotten worse and my condition is getting worse all the time,' she said. On the recommendation of an occupational therapist, the couple applied to have a new downstairs bedroom built in their home, which would contain a walk-in shower with a seat, wheelchair access, a low sink and window and a toilet. 'Getting that would make a huge change. It would be great,' said Anthony. 'She could have her own room, her own shower with a seat in it so she could have her shower every day. She wouldn"t have to worry about sweating or being dirty. Just getting a shower once a week is no good. She needs to be able to shower every day.' He said they were shown plans for a new bedroom at the house six months ago but changes had to be made to the plans and they haven"t heard anything from the council in relation to the work since then. 'It gets on your nerves. You can"t just get out of bed and have a shower,' said Rose. 'The fact that she has to use the commode is very downgrading for a person,' added Anthony. 'I know of a man who was genuinely sick and in hospital. When he came out from hospital he has a ramp at his front door within two weeks. When you hear of cases like that it"s hard to understand why it"s taking so long.' The couple will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary next week and they say there"s no better gift they could receive than positive news from the council in relation to their grant for the new bedroom. 'That would be lovely,' said Rose. Cllr Kieran Molloy stated this week that he intends to raise the issue of housing grants for people with disbilities at next week"s council meeting in an attempt to clarify exactly how much money is available for such works in the Athlone area. 'I have been lobbying for people in a number of these cases and I know the council have been trying to prioritise them but that doesn"t mean that people who are in these circumstances should be left in limbo. I"ll be asking for an update on what money is currently available. I"m not sure that we"ve got our allocation for the Athlone Area as yet and I"ll be asking for an update on that also,' he said. Attempts by the Westmeath Independent to contact the council executive in relation to the issue were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.