`Exploitation of the old' criticised by archdeacon

The Church of Ireland Archdeacon of Dublin, Dr Gordon Linney, has forcefully condemned "a regime of sickening dishonesty and exploitation by Government and State agencies" aimed at the old.

In a sermon yesterday at St Paul's Church, Glenageary, Co Dublin, he said anyone involved could not claim "to be a Christian and go around institutionally causing suffering in this way". He said the recent Ombudsman's report exposed the "consistent policy of the Department of Health and some health boards to deprive frail and sick elderly people of their statutory entitlement to free institutional care".

He knew what the courts would do to someone who robbed the old or vulnerable or knowingly caused them distress, yet "that is what happened here, except the offenders are not pathetic miserable drug addicts but suited respectable men and women in positions of power who are almost beyond the law". There seemed to be "no sense of shame or wrongdoing anywhere in the political parties or amongst the civil servants involved".

Indeed the Ombudsman had said he did not detect any concern among those responsible "for the human rights of these poor people who had been robbed of as much as £1 billion". Those in power in Ireland became "abusers of the poor and the vulnerable" when it suited and "will not be called to account", Dr Linney said.

How could people believe that scandals and corruption and abuse of power belonged to another era when the report noted "the relative silence of the entire political establishment and the non-accountability?" There had been discussion about the real presence of Christ, but the Jesus present in the Eucharist "also told us that we would find him and commune with him when we were in the presence of the least of his brethren". Among such "surely are the old who no longer can manage for themselves".

Dr Linney said those responsible for such treatment of the vulnerable had "serious moral questions to address", while Christians had a duty to ask how new tax concessions would be financed. "Part of the answer will be found in long hospital waiting lists, in crowded A & E departments, and in the case of an autistic child whose mother's hard-won and successful efforts in the High Court have been appealed by the Department of Education to the Supreme Court," he said.

"Can you really enjoy a few pennies off income tax which costs others so much?"

Christians should also realise that "the continuing decline in moral and ethical standards in Irish political and commercial life" meant Christian churches would find themselves at odds with those in authority.