Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We in Sinn Féin have repeatedly pointed out that Fine Gael and the Labour Party are implementing the very Fianna Fáil strategies and polices they so loudly denounced while in opposition. This coalition Government's treatment of our older citizens in budget 2014 now proves conclusively that Fine Gael and Labour are indeed, by virtue of their actions and decisions, "Continuity Fianna Fáil". There is no other way to describe them at this point time. The Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, has done a fair bit of political party musical chairs over the years but look at where she is now - "Continuity Fianna Fáil". Who would ever have thought?

Like Fianna Fáil, the Minister of State and her Government colleagues have imposed a series of attacks on the livelihoods and security of our oIder citizens. Last year it was the respite care grant and cuts to over-70s medical card eligibility. This year in budget 2014 they have come forward with a further series of attacks on older people, and that is indisputable. The axing of the monthly telephone allowance is a callous act that has caused widespread concern, and indeed real fear among older people. None of us can be in any doubt about that after the weekend, being back in our respective constituencies following the budget of last Tuesday. I have no doubt about it, having spoken to a variety of people of senior years, all of whom are reflecting the impact these measures will have on their lives.

How is that acceptable to any Government that claims to value the security of older people and that claims to vindicate the right of our older citizens to remain in their own homes as long as possible? The telephone allowance was a very important support. I know of instances, and people very close to me, where the bill for the two-monthly demand for the telephone is multiples of the use but the importance of the telephone is why it is retained. It is not dispensed with, and a mobile telephone is not an option so it is critically important that the telephone allowance is restored. That is the first demand I would make of the Minister and of her colleagues in Government - to restore the telephone allowance without any further prevarication. As the Irish Senior Citizens' Parliament has pointed out, many of the security and monitoring devices which older people have installed in their homes rely on land lines - especially in areas where broadband coverage is poor, including in my own area of the country. Replacements or changes to these systems would be costly and accessibility has been affected by severe cuts to the community groups who supply them.

Once again the over-70s medical card has been restricted, affecting an estimated 35,000 people on top of the 30,000 cut last year. The then Deputy James Reilly denounced such changes under Fianna Fáil and now he is implementing them. Age Action Ireland put the position well when it stated:

It is contradictory to be removing means-tested cards from a section of society which has high medical needs, in a Budget which is rolling out free GP care for children and heralding it as the roll out of its universal primary care plans. This year's cuts are part of a continuing process of reductions which began in 2008 when the automatic entitlement for the Over-70s Medical Card was abolished.

At the time of the abolition of the over 70s automatic entitlement, one of its strongest critics was the then Deputy James Reilly, who sat here in close proximity to me. There was a partial climb-down by the Fianna Fáil-led Government, thanks to the massive mobilisation of older people, and we have seen that again today, but the Minister, Deputy Reilly, and his Cabinet colleagues have set their face against any changes to the raft of measures penalising older people that they are imposing in this budget, and they will pay a price for that.

The then Deputy James Reilly and Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, as Fine Gael and Labour health spokespeople respectively, denounced the imposition by the then Minister, Mary Harney, and Fianna Fáil of 50 cent per item prescription charges for medical card holders, yet in Government they have now increased those charges five-fold. The budget figures claim that €43 million will be raised in 2014 by the increase in prescription charges but in Sinn Fein's Alternative Budget 2014, we show that €258 million can be saved in 2014 by delivering further savings on branded medicines and altering prescribing practices. We have also identified €66 million that can be saved by the introduction of generic substitution and reference pricing for the 20 most commonly used off-patent medications, and these are savings in medicines alone. We have identified further savings of over €330 million in the health budget without affecting patient care and without affecting people's medical card and other entitlements. It clearly shows that this Government, and very particularly this Department of Health, made no effort to look at real alternatives, going for the "cut, cut, cut" approach they inherited from their predecessors. The Minister for Health and his Cabinet colleagues, rather than deliver on their promise to make these savings on medicines, chose instead to break their promises to the people and to penalise medical card holders yet again, in particular older people and people with disabilities who require a lot of medication.

A particularly callous budget measure is the abolition of the bereavement grant, and we must bear in mind that this was a payment people were entitled to because it was based on their PRSI contributions during their working lives, but the contribution of older people during their working lives has been degraded and devalued by this Government's decision in this respect.

There is much focus now on the position of health Minister, Deputy James Reilly, and the question on the lips of many in political life, media commentators and across wider society is: should the Minister resign? My answer to that is clear - of course he should, but it should not only be the Minister, Deputy Reilly.

It should be the entire Cabinet because they are responsible collectively for imposing anti-people austerity policies which they have aped and copied from their predecessors and, with a new vigour and enthusiasm, have imposed on an ever more straitened and economically challenged society. It is time to fold up the tent and give the people the chance to elect a Government which will act in the interest of the overwhelming number who are currently suffering.

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