Thousands to march over homehelp cuts

Thousands of sick and elderly people are set to march on Leinster House over the Government’s plans to axe 450,000 home help hours from the system.

In a highly controversial move to help solve the health service’s chronic overspending, the HSE yesterday confirmed it was cutting €8m worth of home help hours until the end of this year.

The figure, which equates to roughly 450,000 hours of support for those in need, replaces an initial plan to cut €10.8m which had to be cancelled last month after public outrage.