John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion in the name of Deputy Kelleher. The attack on the elderly in the last two budgets is nothing short of a disgrace. People who worked all their lives, mostly in bad times, to build up this country are under attack from this Government. This is a new departure for the Government. I am in this House over 30 years, and every previous government always prided itself on looking after the elderly but for some unknown reason this Government has decided to wage war on the elderly in our community. We have seen the withdrawal of the telephone allowance. Many people have come to my clinics over the weekend expressing serious concern about this issue. Many of them are dependent on panic buttons, and the Taoiseach last week stated that he would talk to Community Alert. I have spoken to representatives of Community Alert in my own county and they do not see any way forward in dealing with this issue, which is causing serious problems. We have seen an increase in prescription charges, while ESB allowances were reduced last year. The Taoiseach pointed out that those allowances were not reduced this year; big deal. Old age pensioners are not going to be exempt from the property tax and water charges. There has been a 30% increase in the cots of gas and oil. This is all causing major burdens on the elderly in our community.

We received a document in our pigeon holes today and on one of the pages there is a reference to a "fair and progressive system", which must have come from the Department of Social Protection or the Government itself, but certainly there is nothing fair about this budget. Many of the cuts will have a serious impact on the elderly in our community. The medical card guidelines have been drastically reduced for those aged over 70, and this is frightening the life out of old people, who are afraid they will lose their cards. Over the last month we have had the issue of the discretionary medical cards. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Health have frequently said that there is no change to the discretionary medical card. Well I can tell them that people are coming to my clinic having lost their medical cards. These are people with disabilities, people with cancer, and people suffering from chronic diseases.

A month ago a constituent of mine applied for a medical card and as a result, the letter from the consultant stated "end of life situation". Having refused it twice, and after about 20 telephone calls from me and from his family, the officer involved decided to issue the medical card. That person should not have to go through all of that to receive his medical card. The consultant stated clearly on the letter that this was an end of life situation. People in the medical card section will say that they cannot issue them and that the issue must go to the chief medical officer in the medical card section, but when a consultant's letter states "end of life situation", there should be no question but that a discretionary medical card should be issued.

This Government has launched a major attack on the elderly in our community. It is the first time I have seen a government hell bent on taking the extra incentives the old people have to live in their community.

People are now afraid to live in the community. The local Garda stations, HSE offices and health centres in many areas have been closed. We now have older people living in fear because of the lack of gardaí and the lack of services available to them. It is not a big deal to ask the Government to reverse its decision to cut the telephone allowance and would not cause major disruption to the Government finances. Over the weekend I had more representations on this issue than on any other issue. Most old people still have a landline. In many cases they are the only people to still hold on to the landline. They need it for panic buttons, and to contact their friends and family members because many of them are not able to use mobile phones. It is a callous decision by the Government to withdraw the telephone allowance.

I do not believe the Minister for Health was in the House last week - he is not too fond of coming in here to hear the truth. He will appear on the airwaves at every opportunity to attack and criticise Fianna Fáil. We have been out of government for three years. He is the Minister for Health and needs to deal with the day-to-day issues. He is doing a very bad job on it at present.

See this speech in context