In a statement Richard Boyd Barrett TD for People Before Profit/ULA has condemned as barbaric HSE plans to go-ahead with a planned further cut in hundreds of thousands of hours of home-help for elderly and disabled citizens.

Deputy Boyd Barrett called on the public to join a protest march that has been called by home-helps and service users on Wednesday Oct 17th at 3pm, assembling at the spire in O Connell St, Dublin.

Deputy Boyd Barrett accused Minister James Reilly and the Taoiseach of dishonesty and hypocrisy in their recent claims that their health service “reforms” were aimed at improving “outcomes” for service users.

Deputy Boyd Barrett recently brought 60 home-helps in to the Dail to challenge the Taoiseach about the planned cuts and moves to privatise home-help services. In the Dail exchange, the Taoiseach claimed that any citizen who needed home-help hours would get them and he denied that many home-helps were now being forced to work on a time-clock basis, when in fact this practice is now widespread.

Richard Boyd Barrett said:

“The news that he HSE intends to go ahead with a further cut of hundreds of thousands of home-help hours for the elderly and the disabled is absolutely barbaric.

James Reilly needs to state clearly whether he has given the green-light to this outrageous attack on the some of the most vulnerable citizens in the state.

If the Minister has approved these cuts it makes a mockery of all his rhetoric over the last few weeks that the priority of his so-called “reforms” in the health service was to ensure “patient care” and “best outcomes.”

It is not a reform to cut hundreds of thousands hours of home-help to the elderly and the disabled, on top of 500,000 hours cut earlier this year. It is a brutal cut, pure and simple, that will substantially degrade the quality of life of our elderly and disabled citizens.

This cut also takes place in the context of moves by the Minister to outsource and privatise home-help services to “for profit” companies. It confirms what former Minister Shorthall said, following her resignation, that James Reilly is intent on moving towards a privatised US type model of health-care.

If this cut is going ahead it also reveals the hollowness of the rhetoric used by the Taoiseach in the Dail last week when I brought 60 home-helps into the Dail and challenged him about home-help cuts and the fact that many home-helps are now being required to work on a time-clock when visiting elderly and disabled citizens.

The Taoiseach claimed that any citizens who needed home-help would get it and denied that many home-helps were now being instructed to work on a stop-clock. What he said is absolute nonsense. If these cuts go ahead many vulnerable citizens will not get the help they need and many home-helps are in fact being now being told to work on a stop-clock – seriously undermining the quality of care and assistance they are able to give.

I would appeal to anyone who is concerned about the care of the elderly and disabled citizens to come on the streets and join the protest called by home-helps and service users on Wednesday Oct 17th. at 3pm, assembling at the Spire on O’ Connell Street.”

For more info/confirmation:

Richard Boyd Barrett 086-7814520

Sara O Rourke 087-6024821