Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice has condemned the government for failing to live up to promises to support people with long term incontinence.
In 2017, then Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, Denis Naughten announced an annual support of €75 for people with lifelong or long-term medical incontinence.
The support was introduced to help people meet the annual cost of disposal of incontinence products.
Galway Michael Fitzmaurice slammed the governments ongoing failure to introduce to the support.
“This was promised almost two years ago, and here we are – still waiting. This Government, along with successive ministers in the department, have failed to deliver”.
The Roscommon–Galway TD expressed his sympathy with the “most vulnerable in society” and declared that they are suffering due to the “incompetence of this Fine Gael Government”.
He noted that the responsibility for the scheme has now passed to Minister Richard Bruton.
While Fitzmaurice acknowledged that the Minister and his department have blamed the delay around concerns relating to personal data, he remarked that he found it “extremely hard to believe” that a plan cannot be formulated to implement a €75 support for those desperately in need.
He emphasised his frustration that this matter is still not settled after almost two years and proclaimed that people were sick and tired of hearing “the same tired excuses from one minister to another”
“The only ones suffering as a result of the delay are those who are lifelong or long-term medically incontinent. These people have significantly higher waste charges to pay and the €75 would be of huge benefit to them.”
