LIMERICK Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins has called for cuts to home help hours to be reduced due to the “devastating effect” on families who avail of the service. Deputy Collins said he had been in contact with many Limerick families that have been devastated by these cuts and they saw no sense whatsoever “in cruelly reducing and ending the home help assistance hours.” He pointed out that last month in the Dáil, Limerick county Fine Gael TDs Dan Neville and Patrick O’Donovan voted to retain the cuts to home help hours, as did Limerick City Labour TD Jan O’Sullivan and her Fine Gael colleague Michael Noonan.
He claimed that Limerick families found it “hard to stomach” that local TDs would vote in favour of these cuts.
“I was the only TD in Limerick County to vote against the cuts, which I find extraordinary. We see the anguish of Limerick people every day, these families are finding it impossible to understand how the cuts can be justified. If they are not immediately reversed, hundreds of people in Limerick could be forced into the Mid-West Regional Hospital or long stay care.”
Deputy Collins also pointed out that Taoiseach Enda Kenny had given assurances that those who had been medically assessed would not be cut.
However, he remarked that this “is blatantly not true” and added: “I have come across numerous cases in Limerick of elderly people with a variety of different ailments that have had their assistance hours slashed. Even representations from GPs explaining the difficulties their patients are experiencing are having no effect.”
He concluded by calling on all government TDs in Limerick city and county “to put aside party politics” and put pressure on the Minister for Health to reverse the cuts.
