A Labour party candidate for Castlebar Town Council, has hit out at the Government for what she called a callous attitude towards the old and the young. Bernie Courtney said: “I have met many elderly people who are terrified they will lose their medical card. One couple told me they had received a renewal form from the Department of Social Welfare for their medical card. The form is a gross intrusion into the affairs of elderly people who had found great difficulty in completing the forms. This is no way to treat decent people, the backbone of the country over the years,” said Courtney.
Courtney also said that she had met many young people on the doorsteps who had little hope for the future. “Many young people who were in jobs have been thrown onto the dole and forced to live on very low incomes, in many cases in poor living conditions, Fianna Fail and the Greens had turned their backs on those unfortunate people who were living a hand to mouth existence,” said Courtney.
