THE GOVERNMENT “must stop trying to cut its way out of this crisis”, Fr Seán Healy of the Conference of Religious of Ireland told the Senior Citizens’ Parliament annual meeting at the weekend.
He said Ireland was going through five crises – in banking, the national budget, the economy, socially, and in terms of our international reputation.
“I’m not talking about some utopian idea when I speak of vision. In fact there is good concrete vision set out in Towards 2016 – for children, for older people, for working-age people and for people with disabilities.”
Among the concrete aims Fr Healy said were to be delivered for older people in the agreement were that they should have an income sufficient to achieve an acceptable standard of living; that they should be supported to live in their own homes as long as possible; and that they be encouraged to participate in civic and social life. Looking at the supplementary Budget made him feel “we will not be remotely close to having an income necessary to maintain the services we have, never mind the services envisaged in Towards 2016.
“The Government must stop trying to cut its way out of the crisis. You can certainly get better value and peel away things that are not required but there is no way we can have cuts in services to save money. We will destroy society.”
