Tánaiste Mary Harney has dropped a "bombshell" on agencies that provide home help services, according to the Fine Gael deputy leader, Richard Bruton.
The Department of Health has written to agencies asking them to cut their budgets by 20 per cent, he said.
Richard Bruton
Mr Bruton accused the Tánaiste of using the cuts to claw back money to pay for the cost of nursing home charges.
"Minister Harney has no justification for trying to claw back money from the most vulnerable people in order to pay for her department’s incompetence in the administration of nursing home charges," Mr Bruton said.
He also claimed that the cuts were introduced without warning and go against agreements that had been negotiated and put in place from the start of the year.
"This year alone its [Department of Health] budget has risen by €1,300 million, an increase of 12.5 per cent, and still it imposes these savage cutbacks on people who just cannot take it."
"Where is this Government’s sense of priority?" Mr Bruton said.
