Heed voices that railed against cuts

LAST October, as the Government cowered in the corner licking its medical card crisis wounds, the elderly population of Ireland was publicly showered in compliments.

Grandmothers and grandfathers previously thrown on the scrap-heap for being too old and frail to make a difference had inflicted a mortal injury on Brian Lenihan’s first ham-fisted attempt at the budget. As a result, the rest of the country took notice. Maybe we didn’t notice enough.

New figures detailed in the HSE’s Open Your Eyes report show at the same time as the October optimism, elderly people whose voices were not heard continued to be an easy target for abuse — both from within the health service and, worryingly, behind the doors of their own homes.