Sir, - As a parent of an eight-year-old child with Downs Syndrome, I must agree wholeheartedly with Dr Mark Harrold's article on the rights of people with a mental handicap (Opinion, September 13th). It not only hits the nail on the head as far as services and government commitment to the whole area of mental handicap are concerned; it highlights the contempt in which this Government holds the whole area of mental handicap.
I am puzzled by the views of some of the independent TDs who are currently propping up the Government. They want on one hand to restrict access to abortion, while at the same time they voted down a private member's Bill calling for an additional £60 million in financial support to help alleviate the hardship of parents under stress, and provide additional full-time and respite beds for our children.
If they are so opposed to abortion, they should propose a new private member's Bill introducing sweeping changes in funding for those with a mental handicap, as our children didn't ask to be born. - Yours, etc.,
Larry Kelly, Rosemount Estate, Dundrum, Dublin 14.