"Who Will Take Care Of Our Intellectually Disabled Children When We Die?" Asks Campaign Group

Friday, 20 February 2026 08:15

By Hannah Kelly

Left to right: Tony Murray, Aoife, and Susan

The parents' lobby group have been campaigning for the Government to fund and deliver residential places for adults with intellectual disabilities

Who will take care of our children with intellectual disabilities when we die?

That's the question being asked by campaign group Before We Die (BWD).

The parents' lobby group have been campaigning for the Government to fund and deliver residential places for adults with intellectual disabilities.

Tony Murray, founder of Before We Die, joined this Wednesday morning's Kildare Today, to discuss what he says is a lack of forward thinking by the HSE and Government towards care for those with intellectual disabilities once their main caretaker is unable to do so.

Mr Murray, aged 71, cares for his 42-year-old daughter Aoife, with his wife Susan.

"Luckily, I'm very healthy and very fit. But that's luck. I shouldn't be actually doing this", he explained.

Since campaigning, Mr Murray said they "kind of have an answer, but it's not an answer".

"Essentially, there is no plan for Aoife and the thousands of adults like her.

"[The HSE] will wait till my wife, Susan, and I are no longer able to care or die, most likely die. They will then pressurise my two sons to provide care for Aoife. It's not their responsibility.

"She will then become an emergency place and her case will be put out tender to for-profit companies. They will tender for the business of caring for Aoife. It won't happen in the leafy suburbs of Clontarf, Portmarnock or wherever, like in Dublin that you might know.

"She will be shipped out to anywhere in the country. So in one fell swoop Aoife and the likes of her will, lose her parents.

"She will lose her home, be shipped off to a place she has no contact with, will probably lose her day service, her friends, her social outings and she will be separated from her two brothers in one fell swoop, probably six weeks from the time we die."

You can listen to the full interview with Tony Murray here: