The decision by the North Eastern Area Health Board to cut home help services for disabled and elderly people was criticised yesterday.
It emerged that home help services in Co Meath are to be cut by 40 per cent due to financial constraints, while services in counties Cavan, Monaghan and Louth are to also be cut.
Fine Gael's health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said the cutbacks marked a new low for the health service. Citing the provision by the board of an additional €1 million funding for St Mary's Hospital in Drumcar, Co Louth, Ms Mitchell claimed the board was "robbing Peter to pay Paul".
A spokeswoman for the board said the two issues were not directly related. "We're operating under budgetary constraints," she said. Cases of "extreme hardship would be reviewed by the board", she added.
Some 669 people in Co Meath receive home help services. The number of hours of service they received would be reduced by an average of 40 per cent this year.
In the entire health board area, the hours of home help services provided this year would be reduced by 86,000 to 784,078.
Such a level of service would be the same as in 2002, the spokeswoman said.