I take this opportunity, on my behalf and that of my party, to congratulate President Obama on his success in the US presidential elections. He and the United States have been good friends to Ireland and we wish him and the United States every success in what will be a very challenging environment over the coming years. I also pay tribute to Governor Romney for what was a very competitive campaign, which riveted many people over the past weeks.
On the domestic front, I mention an issue that I raised some weeks ago with the Taoiseach, the savage cuts in home help hours. The rhetoric being used in this House bears no relation to the reality with respect to the impact of these cuts. I met thousands of people last Saturday when people from all over Munster were marching in Cork, and I got first-hand accounts from people whose elderly relatives have had home help hours cut. I recall the Taoiseach saying some weeks ago that the overall position is that anyone with an assessed need for a home help service will not be left without one. That is not the reality.
I met a young woman on Saturday who detailed the case of her elderly disabled mother. She said that although it was difficult for them to manage before the cuts, it is now impossible because of these cruel measures. She indicated that there was no alternative to considering placing her mother into long-term care, which she is sure will cost the State dearly compared to care at home. Her GP wrote to the HSE and the Taoiseach noted there would be medical assessment in that regard. The GP indicated that although cost-saving measures must be addressed by the HSE, it is inhumane to deny a disabled, elderly person the fundamental right to live in her own home with dignity. He went on to say that he finds the cutting of home help hours for vulnerable patients very upsetting and unjustifiable, and it makes no economic sense.
There is a range of other cases, and I am sure every Deputy in the House has had people outline details of elderly people who have had hours cut fully and the service fully stopped. There are two elderly sisters who are nearly blind who have had their hours fully stopped. This position is untenable and unfair. The manner in which these cuts have come about, as the campaign for Older and Bolder and others have argued, means that there has been no notice in many cases. The impact has been "colossal and potentially dangerous" in the words of Age Action Ireland.
Does the Taoiseach accept that these cuts fly in the face of repeated commitments in the programme for Government? Will the Taoiseach consider reversing those cuts imposed on families?
