Pearse and Padraig launch the telephone allowance cut campaign
Donegal Sinn Féin TDs Pearse Doherty and Pádraig MacLochlainn have this morning launched a postcard campaign to reverse the cut to the phone allowance.
The launch comes as Donegal Daily revealed the concerns of one man who recently lost his aunt following a burglary at her home in Raphoe.
Joe McKean told us how he was now calling on the Government to reverse the scrapping of the phone allowance.
Joe’s aunt Suzy Arthur died after she broke her hip when she was thrown to the ground at her home in Raphoe during a raid by burglars in July.
Speaking from Leinster House the Donegal Sinn Fein Deputies MacLochlainn and Doherty said this budget has hit older people particularly hard.
“One of the most cynical cuts is the cut to the telephone allowance.
“Older people rely on the telephone as an essential lifeline. They need it for their alarm, to keep in touch with friends and relatives and of course the health services and community groups.
“This cut comes on top of a range of cuts affecting older people, particularly in rural areas, such as the cut to rural transport, loss of services and additional costs such as prescription charges.
“We are call on people to ‘Press the Alarm for the elderly’. Sinn Féin has printed 25,000 postcards which will be distributed across rural Ireland which call on people to raise this issue on the local media, and to lobby their local government representatives to have this cut and other cuts reversed.
“Sinn Féin put forward proposals in our alternative budget that would have reduced the deficit in a fair way without putting the burden on the most vulnerable in society such as older people living in isolated rural areas.”
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