Home-helps in Castlebar protest march

Home-help workers are to march in the Taoiseach's hometown of Castlebar, in County Mayo this afternoon appealing to the government to reverse a decision to cut the allocation of home-help hours.

Trade Union SIPTU says older people and their families have already been badly affected by this year's cut of 500,000 hours in home-help services.

It is warning that plans to further cut 600,000 care-hours will have an expensive knock-on effect for the State when older people are forced into nursing homes.