Madam, – The way the Government intends to raise additional funds for the Fair Deal Nursing Home Scheme is revealing of its attitude towards the public service.
Many times over the past few weeks Minister for Health James Reilly spoke of his dismay that the cost of care in public nursing homes far exceeds their private nursing home counterparts. Yet there is no suggestion that he intends to address this incredible anomaly.
No, the easiest way is to squeeze more money out of defenceless unfortunate old people and to reduce payments to private nursing homes, the vast majority of which are far more efficiently run.
In the short few months it has been in office, this Government has clearly demonstrated where its loyalties lie. It has plundered private pension funds while ring-fencing its own and public service pensions. Already there are many worrying signs that it lacks the courage, imagination and the will to tackle the fundamental problems in our society.
God help us, the worst is probably yet to come. – Yours, etc,