There’s a high price to be paid for unkindest cut of all

A chara, Is mian liom agóid láidir a dhéanamh i gcoinne na ngearrtha siar is déanaí atá á gcur i bhfeidhm - don tarna huair i mbliana, ar uaireanta oibre na gcúramóirí baile agus na seandaoine atá ag brath orthu. Náire shaolta é bheith ag tabhairt faoi dhaoine nuair is mó atá cabhair uathu, ainneoin polasaí an rialtais iad a choimeád ag baile ina bpobal fein chomh fada agus ab fhéidir. Is maith mar a chuir an Piarsach é breis is céad bliain ó shin: Mór mo naire Mo chlann fein do dhíol a máthair.

I cannot remain silent about the cutbacks that have been made for the second time in a year, to home help hours to the elderly, one of the most vulnerable groups in our community and one that has least clout to protest on their own behalf. Having lived their lives in service to this state they are now, in the unkindest cut of all, having 300,000 hours reduced countrywide, these having been brought in, deliberately, under the radar, before the Budget, so that families were informed by phone on a Thursday of reduced hours that were taking effect from the following Monday, in spite of reassurances about ‘assessed needs’. So, they, with so many others, including the carers whose Respite Grant was cut in the Budget, are being punished for the failures of some politicians, bankers and developers, all of whom, together with top administrators, draw salaries/ pensions which are many multiples of those which home helps earn by their hard work and dedication.

When winter cold comes in earnest, accompanied by flu and, possibly, pneumonia, many of these people will be admitted to public hospital beds which cost €800 a night, and if they survive, to a nursing home where costs are between €900 – €1,200 per week. Then, the utter blind stupidity and short sightedness of these measures will become obvious; indeed a little common sense might even yet, save a large expense, quite apart from questions of decency, morality or basic humanity at all. It is envisaged in further cuts in the future that no hot meal will be cooked for the incapacitated elderly; to quote the maligned Marie Antoinette: Let them eat cake!

This is how our government, in your and my name, is treating the weakest in our society. This coalition, led by the European of the Year and Labour’s Way, gets zéro point / no marks, as do the administrators and bureaucrats of the HSE who seem to show no concern for the harm they are doing or any qualms of conscience. Even if they don’t have an elderly parent themselves, it is worth reminding all politicians - TDs and councillors, that there are about 180,000 carers in the country, of whom, 9,500 home helps - a sizable block of voters, when their extended families are included, who will not forget what was done to those who had no voice when it comes to casting a vote. Mar a deir an seanfhocal - Casfaidh an phiast!

The words of the German theologian, Martin Niemoeller, in his anti-Nazi poem, are appropriate reading for all Irish citizens, at this time of barbaric attacks on the most vulnerable,- the elderly, the carers, the autistic children, the disabled:

First they came for the communists,

And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the socialists, And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for me, And there was no one left to speak for me. Sincerely, Brighid Ní Mhórain, An Com, Trá Lí.