Keeping warm - No free ride for elderly

It will come as no surprise to those working at the coalface of poverty that elderly people are travelling up and down country by train simply to keep warm.

Having lost crucial state supports in Budget 2014, many feel they can no longer afford to turn on the central heating. With up to 1,000 pensioners and the families of chronically ill children now losing their medical cards every month, the growing fear among the elderly is that free travel will also be taken from them.

So mean-spirited is this Government perceived, pensioners are taking to the streets in a bid to have cuts reversed. Facing taxes on property and water next year, in their worst nightmares, the troika and extreme Thatcherite elements of Fine Gael are no doubt visualised pressing CIÉ to turn off the heat in the train.