Sir, – Every day I read the papers and listen to the news; I hear about the pensions, the hospitals, the cutting of payments to disadvantaged and handicapped people, the tribunals, the politicians, the bankers and Nama. I pay my levies, my household tax, my income tax, etc.
For me, life goes on, but over the past weekend I found myself in a very uncomfortable dark place, a hospital corridor in South Tipperary General Hospital, Clonmel where a close and dear relative of mine was left lying all night on a trolley with no privacy, nowhere to wash and using a public toilet.
My relation was only one of many elderly people who were left there, some freezing with the cold. The staff were doing all they could in very difficult circumstances. My relative would have been left lying there all weekend on the trolley (the hospital could not give her one lousy pillow), only that her family insisted on taking her home.
I wish all the bankers and politicians in this country a very good night’s sleep. – Yours, etc,