A DISABLED man from Enniskillen has dismissed some politicians for what he says has been “a rough and very petty” election campaign so far.
With three weeks left until Stormont gets a reboot less than a year after the last time, would-be MLAs of all backgrounds are trading blows almost daily. It has left people like Sean Muldoon feeling fed up.
“The campaigning system at the minute, it isn’t good,” the 41 year old told The Impartial Reporter.
“It’s not very optimistic for people with special needs, for my needs in the time to come. It’s not good. Everyone seems to be having a pop. 
“We’ve had a fully functioning government for less than eight months and that is not good. The outcome of that means the future does not look good,” he said. 
Mr. Muldoon said as a result of Stormont’s collapse disabled people “are now suffering.”
“Disabled people here are having to think outside the box with very little support. I have a great social worker, she’s only new to me, and the current situation is she’s learning from me. I have to show her how we do things and what’s best for me. There is a very weak strategy of support out there for disabled people,” he said, praising his social worker once more and his “loyal family.”
“What the politicians are talking about is all in the past. I want them to focus on health, education and what really matters. I had great hopes for the previous government. Lists were to be shortened, waiting times were to be shortened, ” he said on Tuesday.
Later that afternoon Health Minister Michelle O’Neill published an Elective Care Plan to address waiting times for planned treatments, care and diagnostics. 
However, the first stage requires a total of £31.2 million, new non-recurrent revenue investment in 2017/18 to fund additional activity to clear, by March 2018, the backlog of patients waiting more than 52 weeks for a first outpatient appointment and inpatient/daycase at March 2017. In addition the backlog of patients waiting more than 26 weeks at March 2017 for diagnostics will also be cleared by March 2018. 
“As I have said before, new investment is also required to take forward the initial work on the other commitments in the Plan to transform the delivery of elective care