Almost 100 people protested in Dundalk last week to highlight the devastating effects home helps cuts were having on workers and the elderly. Home Support Workers, some of their clients and their families gathered in the Square in Dundalk behind their union banner and marched to the HSE office.
The crowd enjoyed the soaring temperatures and sang their way through the streets. Speaking to the gathered crowd, SIPTU Shop Steward, Nicola Briscoe Breen, said that they were there to send a loud message to the HSE that the workers, the elderly clients and their families were standing together to oppose cuts to home help hours.
The Home Help budget has been subject to a series of cuts in recent years. The Dundalk protest is one of many actions taken by SIPTU members and their supporters in recent months. The workers are demanding a reversal of the cuts which are resulting in reduced service for clients and drastically reduced earnings potential for workers. Following an intensive campaign by SIPTU members including marches, protests and demonstrations and lobbying of TDs and County Councils, some funding was restored to the Home Help service in the December budget.
However SIPTU Shop Steward, Gold Thomas, told the protesters in Dundalk that the current level of funding and cuts still means that clients are not getting the levels of care they deserve. "We the workers deserve better than this. We need time to care for our clients and these cuts do not make that possible".
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