Disability cuts - No defence on any grounds

NOT a day passes without headline news of the worst kind concerning the plight of the weakest and most vulnerable people in our benighted society, brought to its knees by the excesses of greedy developers, the reckless lending of irresponsible bankers and the wrong-headed policies of this Government.

Today is no exception. The fact that people with intellectual disabilities have been driven to the point of marching in protest on Leinster House today over funding cuts is a stark reminder of the problems confronting service providers in an area where the state is persistently failing to deliver. Rightly or wrongly, the popular perception is that nobody in power gives a damn.

The poignant letter from wheelchair-using 22-year-old Orla Noone says more about the plight of those with disability in a single paragraph than a mountain of newsprint could convey.