Plea not to hit the blind with further budget cuts

THE Government has been asked not to impose budget cuts which will further impact on the blind, as it emerged there could be a 20% increase in the number of people suffering from a vision impairment by 2020.

The Visually Impaired Service Providers Alliance (VISPA) yesterday marched to the Dáil to hand in a letter to Taoiseach Enda Kenny on behalf of the 224,000 people suffering from sight loss across the country.

As well as calling on Mr Kenny’s Cabinet not to impose any further cuts on people who are blind or vision impaired in the next budget, the document also asked the Government to ensure service providers for people with sight loss suffer no further cuts to their budgets.