Madam, - My partner and I are 33. My father is 80 and recently he sustained a fractured hip in a fall. He was transferred from his local hospital in Kildare, where he receives long-term respite care, to Tallaght Hospital, where he now occupies a trolley and waits for treatment - along with 50 others when last I checked.
My partner's mother is a 73-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer who has recently moved from her home to a nearby private nursing home which is the best service available close to her home in Tipperary.
While my partner and her family are glad to be able to place their mother in suitable care, the absence of realistic subvention means that to do so they must exhaust their mother's inconsiderable nest egg, until none remains for her future care, and compromise their own ability to save for their future.
As key demographic voters, we wonder if our only hope is that this cynical Government's lust for power may finally lead to the recognition that their continued neglect of the elderly does not go unnoticed by those under 65 years of age. - Yours, etc,
MARK CARROLL, George's Quay, Dublin 2.