Positive progress has been made in the campaign for adult day services in Monaghan. When a special needs assistant at the Holy Family School in Cootehill heard a father from Monaghan on Northern Sound talk about the dire situation families of children with special needs face every day, she got in touch.
Shelley Adams' mother had a dream to build a nursing home for the community but, when she passed away the property the Adams family had begun building was left unfinished and remains unoccupied to this day. Members of SNAP visited the property last week and found it to be ideal in many ways as the adult day centre they so desperately need. During a public meeting which followed the site visit and was attended by the Adams family, their architects and builders; local TDs, councillors and around 70 parents, everyone agreed the building "could be the answer to everyone's prayers".
Since the meeting, representations have already been made to the Anne Rabbitte's Department of Disabilities and the HSE Children's Services and Estates Department with a view to purchasing and converting the nursing home. Paddy McAloon has two children with additional needs. He is urging politicians to keep working positively to get the project "over the line": "We're waiting now on a phonecall from the HSE, that's the next step," Paddy told Northern Sound, "Pauline Tully and Matt Carthy met with me last Monday at the site and viewed it and saw the great potential it has. I had Heather Humphreys call me during the week and I think she said at one point it could be the answer to all our problems in Monaghan. Niamh Smyth also rang me and she was the one of the people who flagged this in Dublin and got it moved as far as the HSE. Look, they've all been very much behind it and I hope this continues."
