10,000 voices call for reversal of ‘shameful’ cut

Up to 10,000 elderly people took to the streets outside Leinster House yesterday to plead with politicians to stop the “shameful” universal over-70s medical card cut, which is due to be voted into law in two days.

The move — which was first attempted by Fianna Fáil in 2008 before the then government was forced to abandon the plan — means 35,000 pensioners will be stripped of the vital State support.

Health Minister James Reilly has claimed the impact will be minimised as those affected will still hold a GP card for visits only.

However, the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament protest said the explanation completely ignores the fact that elderly people now face medicine bills of up to €2,000 a year due to the cut, as the medical card paid for drug costs of up to €144 a month.

To a chorus of “shame on you” aimed at TDs and senators behind the Dáil gates, Irish Senior Citizens Parliament president Ena O’Mahoney said the attack on the elderly is unforgivable.

The campaigner said the “dreadful time of austerity” has led to a belief within the Government that the elderly are a “soft target”, but she insisted the “grey vote has not gone away”.

Siptu official Bernard Byrne said other Budget 2014 cuts against the elderly, such as hitting the telephone allowance and the reduction of the bereavement grant, were inhumane.

Noting the difficulties that countless families find themselves in, he said the latter cut means Finance Minister Michael Noonan has condemned himself to be remembered as “the minister who robbed the dead”.

Mr Byrne said: “€850 [the bereavement allowance] would barely be enough to open a grave in some cemeteries in Dublin.”

Other speakers said that, unlike younger people, the elderly cannot leave Ireland for better lives abroad.

However, they emphasised that the “inter-generational solidarity” among people fighting austerity in this country must continue — a comment which led to cheers from younger people protesting on behalf of their older colleagues.

Former junior minister and Labour Party member Róisín Shortall, now an independent TD, told the crowd the latest cut to the over-70s medical card was too much to bear as it comes alongside hits to prescription charges, a doubling of the property tax, abolition of the telephone allowance, the pension levy, and other matters.

She was heckled by a small crowd of individuals who were not part of the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament protest, and who later splintered off to hold a march from Kildare St to O’Connell St.

This separate group, a number of whom said they were independent citizens, included members of Republican Sinn Féin and those involved in the anti-austerity protest on O’Connell Bridge last month.

While a number claimed they saw a garda “threaten” to pepper spray an elderly man outside the Dáil, they supplied no corroborating evidence, witnesses, or injured party to support the allegation.

A Garda spokesperson said no complaint had been made against any member of the force.

An Irish Senior Citizens Parliament spokesperson said last night that this second, breakaway protest involved “a very small vocal group who were not in our group”.