Ulster Unionists should stop pussy-footing around on free personal care

9.52.05am GMT Fri 9th Dec 2005

Responding to comments by Ulster Unionist MLA Billy Bell, Alliance Party Health spokesperson Kieran McCarthy has said that it was the Ulster Unionists are directly responsible for delaying the introduction of free personal care for the elderly.

The Strangford MLA stated: "Mr Bell accuses us of ill-informed comments, but then misses the point completely.

"The whole idea of the Alliance proposal during the lifetime of the last Assembly was to put free personal care on the statute book - right then, right there. The very objective was to enable the Minister to budget for the introduction of free personal care.

"Instead the other parties chose to shirk responsibility and pussy-foot around the issue. Instead of making a clear statement of intent, they voted against free personal care and then started 'looking into' the issue. That is nowhere near good enough.

"Had the Alliance Party proposal been accepted, future Ministers would have been obliged to allocate funding to make free personal care a reality whether under devolution or direct rule. Free personal and nursing care for the elderly would already be a reality for thousands of people who desperately need it across Northern Ireland.

"The parties which formed the Executive bear direct responsibility for failing to achieve this, and for the strife faced by thousands of elderly people and their families across Northern Ireland."