State is still robbing nursing home residents

WITH a stealth matching their deplorable behaviour over the previous 30 years, the politicians in Dáil Éireann have reintroduced the cruel practice of deducting 80% of their social welfare entitlement from the residents of long-stay community hospitals/nursing homes.

Once more those who struggled through the tough years to create the bountiful tiger are to be left bereft of all but a sorrowful pittance.

The hypocritical platitudes about respecting the independence of the elderly are a true measure of the integrity of all those who voted to belittle the aged.

Those who have toiled and paid their dues to the state are condemned once more to suffer the indignity of poverty and the humiliation of being too poor to have a little independence.

Not for them the satisfaction of purchasing a new book, the pleasure of buying a glass of wine for a special friend or the deep joy of giving a loving present to a grandchild.

It is a scandal that those to whom we owe so much have been left with so little in their twilight years. May those who have condemned them to such penury enjoy greater consideration when old age becomes their lot.

Cllr Micheal Gleeson

South Kerry Independent Alliance

Clasheen

Killarney

Co Kerry.