‘Are they just trying to kill us all off?’

An elderly woman in ill health, who has relied on a home help worker to bathe and dress her for the past 14 years, was among 1,500 people who attended a protest rally in Cork over nationwide cuts to the service.

The health of Pat Deeney, aged 75, from Grange in Cork, has been severely compromised since 1998 arising out of a brain tumour and a stroke. She has been left without the assistance of her home help at weekends, which means her husband Terry, 77, has little choice but to take over her personal care and grooming two days a week.

Ms Deeney says she is hugely upset and worried by the cut in home help hours.