Madam, - The HSE is linking subventions for private nursing homes to the value of a house inhabited by an old person living alone. This that if such people - many of whom may have no income other than their pension - find themselves unable to cope at home alone, they had better give up the idea of private nursing home care unless they can fund it by the sale of their only asset.
This Government already exploits young people starting off on the property ladder by making millions of euro in so-called "stamp duty". It now proposes to do a similar hatchet-job on those at the other end of the age-scale who have contributed to State coffers for 50 years or more.
This discriminatory initiative is merely a device to help claw back the health funds frittered away by many years of Government mismanagement.
There is a general election coming soon. The value of the vote of an older person living alone is the same as everyone else's. It is important that those votes are used, and used wisely. - Yours, etc,
LOUIS HOGAN, Glendasan Drive, Wicklow Town.