Scandal of underpaid disability workers

IT’S often been said that the mark of a successful society is to be found in how well it treats its most vulnerable members.

With the scandal of the elderly being systemically ripped off for nursing home charges still fresh in our minds, the latest unsettling revelations of exploitation of workers with intellectual disabilities, in return for derisory pay rates of €13 per week, is scarcely surprising. However, it is very indicative of how dysfunctional and exploitative this country really is — despite our thin veneer of Celtic Tiger polish.

The fact that those ‘employing’ these vulnerable people seek to justify their exploitation by describing it as “therapeutic”, and that if they weren’t employed in this way “they’d be left with nothing to do”, illustrates monumental brass neck and insensitivity and adds a further insult to already considerable injury.