Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has been urged to come
out more strongly in opposition to budget cuts to the carers’ allowance.On RTÉ television’s Frontline on Monday night Dr Martin said that caring for people in their homes, particularly the elderly, “is an investment in humanity”.
He noted that institutional care was a more expensive option than home-based care.
He also said that where proposed budget cuts were concerned, “maybe the formula there for carers or other minority groups may not be the right one” .
He also said that cuts in universal benefits led to a situation where “it’s the weakest who feel the pain”.
Where a U-turn was concerned he felt such would be “appropriate after examining the facts, rather than as a knee-jerk reaction”.
Paddy Doyle, a disability activist for 40 years, was in his wheelchair among those protesting outside the Dáil yesterday against cuts in the carers’ allowance.
He said he felt that “something stronger from Diarmuid Martin would have been a bit more powerful than a bunch of us out there . I don’t think he came out hard enough.”