Fury as HSE swings axe on care for disabled children

This is the kind of thing that makes my blood boil.

Hundreds of the country's most severely intellectually disabled children are to have their respite care axed within the next two weeks because of Health Service Executive (HSE) cutbacks link. Such children require constant care, in many cases intensive one-on-one supervision, and the withdrawal of services has been met with shock and anger by already hard-pressed parents.

It has emerged that the parents of over 80 children attending the Ard Cuan centre in Dublin 7 -- a respite centre for people with Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities -- have been told the services face massive reductions because of a €4m cut imposed by the HSE.

This is truly shocking. And totslly sickening. Another example of the poor, the disadvantaged, and the sick being hit the hardest. The people making these decisions should be ashamed of themselves, and the Green Party in Government should also be deeply ashamed that they are supporting this.

And what makes this ever worse is the hypocrisy shown by Eamon Ryan. On the one hand he supports these cuts to the country's most severely intellectually disabled children, and on the other hand he says it's "unacceptable" that a promised cystic fibrosis unit at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin has yet to be delivered link.

I'm reluctant to call this as a new low for the Green Party. Every time I do that they go lower. However, this one will be hard to beat.