About 250 people attended a rally outside the HSE offices at Markievicz House in Sligo yesterday to protest against cuts which Siptu says will lead to a cut of 10,000 home help hours each month across Sligo and Leitrim.
Declan Ferry, industrial organiser with Siptu’s health division, said it was ridiculous in the current climate to cut back on care hours for vulnerable people living at home. “Some of these people have no family to care for them,” he added.
Some home helps who attended the protest said they had been “gagged” by the HSE, as they had received text messages urging them not to talk to the media.
In a statement the HSE said it was facing “an extremely challenging financial situation” and a 4.5 per cent reduction in home help hours was being targeted nationally. It hoped to achieve this “through a more rigorous approach to ensure that the people most in need receive these supports”.