Who cares for the carers?

My wife and I looked after my mother, who developed vascular dementia at the ripe old age of 90, caring for her at home until her death on Jan 1 — a day short of her 96th birthday.

So I listened with mounting incredulity to the whole debacle involving HSE director-general designate Tony O’Brien and the Health Minister as the details of the latest round of ‘slash ‘n’ burn cuts were thrashed out.

Even the mere hint of the 600,000-hour cut in home-help hours, as well as a reduction of 200 homecare packages, and a €10m reduction in hours for personal assistants, (albeit since denied by the minister), left me incredulous.