The HSE is to axe a minimum of 555 public beds in community nursing units (up to 898). In addition they are cutting the level of home help hours by 4.5 percent (which means 500,000 hours).

To hear ALONE CEO, Seán Moynihan respond to the cuts on RTE TV Nine News on January 16th, click here

The combined effects of these cuts will inevitably have the most severe effect on those older people who are already vulnerable and at risk of poverty; which includes one in ten of all older people in Ireland.

The cost of home care provision is significantly less than that of nursing home care provision. ALONE would like to see any savings from bed closures re-invested into home care services, not a reduction in both.

Cutting the number of care beds, along with the level of cost-effective home care makes little sense in the short or long term. This policy will inevitably force older people in need of support to move to much more expensive acute beds, against their will.

Minister for Health James Reilly has consistently repeated his priority to empower older people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, as they would wish. Less than a month ago he stated that, “People should be allowed to stay at home for as long as possible, in their communities surrounded by their families.”

These cuts highlight again the need for a thought-through national strategy for caring for an ageing population, if the government is going to live up to its keynote promise to make Ireland the best place in the world in which to grow old.