Respite Grant Cruellest Cut of the Budget- Crowe

Speaking after attending a Carers protest outside the Dáil today, Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe, called on Fine Gael and Labour to reverse the cut to the Respite Care Grant which he said was the cruellest cut of the budget, describing it as wrong, unjustifiable, and mean spirited.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Budget 2013 has miserably failed the fairness test for families and individuals right across the State. It is a betrayal of those who believed the promises and voted for an alternative to the Fianna Fáil Government in the last election. It’s an all-out attack on families, children, the elderly and in particular women.

“Cuts to Child Benefit, to Maternity Benefit and to the Back to School allowance have decimated the incomes of families struggling to cope with austerity. However the cut to the Respite Care Grant is cruellest cut imposed in this budget.

“Labour and Fine Gael have agreed to cut €325 from more than 77,000 families right across the country, 20,000 of whom receive no other support from the state for providing full-time care for a family member.

“Carers protect and care for the most vulnerable in society and in many cases children with severe disabilities.

“For the Government to hit families of children with disabilities, with the double whammy of cuts to Child Benefit and cuts to the Respite Care Grant, makes a mockery of the promises given during the recent Children’s Referendum.

“This budget cut is wrong and it needs to be sent back to the geniuses who thought it up with a no thank you stamped on it. The Government had choices and it could have taxed the significant wealth that still exists in Ireland. To their shame they decided not to and instead they choose not to and no amount of Ministerial spin will change that.

“The Respite Carers Grant cut will be debated in the Dáil during the debate on the new Social Welfare Bill. This gives the Government an opportunity to withdraw this cruel cut.

“Cutting respite care is a new low, its wrong, its unjustifiable, its mean spirited and it has to be reversed.”