A NINE-YEAR-OLD child with cerebral palsy was used as a “prop” for a photo opportunity by the government during last year’s local and European elections, a TD has claimed in the Dáil.

The mother of Jack Donaghey, who is from Donegal and uses a wheelchair, was contacted in June last year and asked to attend the announcement of €3.6m in funding for children with special needs.

Then-Minister for Disability Anne Rabbitte and former Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue went to Donegal to make the announcement.

However, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty said that none of the money has been released to community groups or families.

“The parents of children with special needs must battle the state every single day for vital services that their children need,” Doherty said.

“It’s a battle that they shouldn’t have to fight. My own county of Donegal has become a black spot for supports for children with special needs,” he said.

“Then in October 2023, they thought their pleas for help were heard. The minister Anne Rabbitte announced the Children’s Disability Service grant, supposedly an emergency stock government fund to urgently provide services and therapies for children with special needs throughout the state.

“One parent who was delighted with the news was Denise McGahern. Her nine-year-old son, Jack Donaghey, has cerebral palsy and is permanently in a wheelchair.

“Denise has been fighting for physio and speech and language therapy that he so desperately needs, and this money was to be allocated within weeks of the minister’s announcement of the fund being set up.

“52 organisations across the state were to benefit from it. But months later, nothing happened.”

Doherty said that 17 months after a second announcement was made in June 2024, “not one red cent” has been released in Donegal or across the country.

“I went and sought answers on behalf of these families, and have now been told by the department that not only is there no money, but that this money was never there at all. This is scandalous,” he said.

“I spoke to Denise yesterday. She’s devastated. She feels betrayed. She feels that her son Jack was used by the government in a prop and a photo opportunity during an election campaign.”

Jack, 9, has Cerebral Palsy.

A Fianna Fáil Minister promised funding for disability organisations, assuring his mother it would change Jack’s life.

17 months later, his family are left feeling like a cruel election prop.

Government must release funding now. pic.twitter.com/937xJRpIqd

— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) March 20, 2025

Tánaiste Simon Harris said he will make sure the funding is released.

Harris said he spoke to Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the cabinet committee on disability about it recently.

“That fund needs to be provided, and I regret that it’s gone on as long as it has,” he said.

Harris said that after the evaluation process, the HSE said that projects with a cost of about €8m met the criteria for that fund.

“This now needs to be provided,” he said.

“The scheme was announced, was announced in good faith. People applied, and the funding now needs to be provided. And the HSE has a level of funding that is almost eye-watering.

“The idea that that €8m that could make a fundamental difference to the lives of so many children, including in their own county, and hasn’t yet been provided, is extraordinarily frustrating.”