They wanted fair deals, not "buckled wheels". Practical support, not "broken promises". The 300 disabled people and their supporters who converged on Dail Eireann yesterday were clear about their demands in the lead-up to Budget 2000.
Mr John Dolan, director of resources with the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA), outlined how a £16 million cost-of-disability fund would significantly improve the lot of the disabled community.
"Being disabled means extra costs are incurred for care and assistance, clothing, travel and other needs," he said. A further £16 million per annum would provide badly-needed resource centres and residential respite.
"These are things that Government gave a commitment to in 1996," he said.
Ms Eileen Daly (24), from Christchurch, Dublin, has cerebral palsy and described her urgent need for such an allowance. Her condition means she has to use a van to get around.
"I have to pay for a driver for the van out of my own pocket, but it is not as though I have any other way of travelling. I can't go on a bus, as the bus pass I am entitled to is no good to me," she said. Would the protest make a difference? "If you don't shout loud enough your voice isn't heard," she said.
Handing placards to those protesters who came empty-handed, Ms Heather Williams of the IWA agreed. "We are all singing from the same hymn sheet," she told the crowd who had travelled from all over the State.
"It's just the Government that is out of tune".
The junior Minister for disabilities, Ms Mary Wallace, was in Sweden for a disabilities conference.
Her spokesman, Mr Nick Killian, said she supported disability groups but it was a question of priorities and expenditure.
Politicians could not avoid the protest as they left Leinster House. The crowd and the 30 or so coaches they had travelled in stretched all the way down Molesworth Street.
When Mr Michael D. Higgins emerged there was a shout of "Up Galway". Caoimghin O Caolain, Simon Coveney, Roisin Shortall and Joe Costello were other TDs who appeared. When the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr Jim McDaid, stopped to talk to protesters he heard first-hand how angry those with disabilities are with the political representatives.
Mr Jerome Finucane, from Ennis, Co Clare, who is in a wheelchair, told the Minister that if it were physically possible he would chain himself to the railings of Dail Eireann and stay there until disabled people got the recognition they deserved.
"We are not making all these needs up. We are living on the breadline. This is the reality in the year 2000," he said, pointing to the crowds of wheelchair-bound protesters.
"What have we got to look forward to?".