Sir, – Is this Government clueless? If it cuts carer’s allowances for what is a pittance in the overall budget, it is inviting disaster.
Carers save the State untold expense in keeping patients in the best place for most of them, their homes. Not alone should we reinstate the allowances, but we should increase them.
Are we so reduced to scraping the barrel that we would take this valued section of society so much for granted? This despicable proposal is mean-spirited and cowardly in that it is a short-sighted attempt to save money which will ultimately cost lots more when the burden of care returns to the State when those carers are unable to cope. If the Government is so desperate for money, let it tax the pensions of the bankers who ripped off the State so easily and without much of a whimper from right across the Dáil. To this exiled Irishman, it is an outrage. – Yours, etc,