Cowen challenged to prove disabled won't be hit by cuts
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TAOISEACH Brian Cowen was challenged last night to prove that the vulnerable would not be affected by respite-care cuts.
It came after more than 1,000 protesters marched on the Dail to demand the restoration of respite care of just two days a month for the disabled.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who met parents who brought their dependent adult children with them on the march, said it was up to Mr Cowen to ensure that no cuts were made.
"Go out and prove it. That's why these people are on the street. I raised it last week and he defended the cuts and he did it again today," he said.
The march was sparked off by a €2m cut in HSE funding to the Brothers of Charity, which then closed its respite care centre in Caherdavin, Limerick city.
The Brothers' respite care centres in Galway city and Ballinasloe are also under threat, while a respite centre run by the Daughters of Charity on the Old Cabra Road in Dublin is due to close in two weeks.
Mr Kenny said he had given Mr Cowen a range of options to avoid HSE funding cutbacks, such as reducing the number of its administrators and cutting the Government travel and entertainment budget.
Those outside the gates of Leinster House included pensioner Sarah Hurley, from Limerick city, who has lost respite care of two days a month for her 43-year-old son John.
Another, Mary Lennon from Ballinasloe, Co Galway, gets one-and-a half days' respite care per month for her wheelchair-bound son Jarlath (26).
"It's an essential break for parents. Parents get burned out themselves," she said.
Mr Cowen had said earlier in the Dail that no decision has yet been made on health spending and that it wasn't a time to scare vulnerable people.
He called for cutbacks to be made to non-front-line services instead of respite care.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said that the protesters had taken to the streets because they had not imagined the cuts.
"The bottom line must be the point of view of persons who have a family member with disabilities for whom they are providing care," he said.
"Those people are at their wit's end and are stretched and strained trying to provide that care," he said.
- Michael Brennan Political Correspondent
Irish Independent
