``Better luck next time''
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The dilapidated roof of James O'Reilly's kitchen is on the verge of collapse, while he says the Taoiseach's constituency office did not help him
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By Michael Pierse
A man suffering from chronic depression told An Phoblacht this week of the blunt response he received from Fianna Fáil when looking for assistance with the renovation of his home.
James O'Reilly (not his real name) was extremely depressed when, he alleges, his pleas for help were rebuffed by Bertie Ahern's assistant, Seán Nolan. James, who is in his mid-50s, lives in what local Sinn Féin Councillor Christy Burke has called ``Dickensian conditions''. His kitchen roof (pictured) is rotting and leaking water, while his bathroom has been flooded on several occasions. There is a smell of dampness in the air and much of the wallpaper is peeling off the walls. James has been diagnosed as suffering with chronic depression and bereavement trauma but he says he was told by the Eastern Health Board (EHB) that he was too young to qualify for a grant.
``I spoke to Bertie Ahern face to face. He said `I'll follow this up myself' and I was delighted, because before I had been turned down by his assistants'', he says of a meeting with the Taoiseach in 1998. ``He looked me in the face, shook my hand, said I'll do everything I can - I'll follow this through.''
He says of the treatment he received from Nolan: ``I've been fobbed off.'' When the EHB finally refused him, James contacted the Taoiseach's assistant. ```Where do we go from here?' he asked. I said that I was wondering the same thing. `Well, better luck next time' was his response.''
``I felt like going out under a bus,'' says O'Reilly.
Councillor Christy Burke said this week that he is currently negotiating the matter with the Health Board and has received a sympathetic response thus far.
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