Minster’s threat to bite the hand that cares

Plans to cut the already inadequate carers’ allowance show society’s most vulnerable will bear the brunt of the slash and save policy, writes Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

IF Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin had her way, Christopher Callaghan would come with a price tag.

In 1999 the 81-year-old father of two from the deprived Liberties area of Dublin, who spent 49 years struggling for work on the docks, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and serious lung problems at St James’s hospital.