Staggering and reprehensible! That’s how Deputy Mattie McGrath described the news from the Midlands South Divisional Manger of the Department of Social Protection that nine community welfare clinics including ones in Clogheen, Ardfinnan, Newcastle and New Inn are all to close with immediate effect from the 23rd of this month.

“This is nothing short of an outrageous and utterly bewildering attack on the rural people of this county in particular. With little over two weeks’ notice the Department has landed this bombshell on the doors of some of the most financially distressed people in our society. The notification itself is full of the kind of meaningless and banal phrases like ‘re-balancing of resources’ which the Department seem to think will somehow make this vicious move more justifiable. I will be demanding an immediate consultation with the Department about the sheer scale of the closures that are envisaged here and will be expressing in the most forthright terms that what is being proposed is absolutely unacceptable.

“I am in particular, deeply worried that when these closures are linked to the major reductions in rural transport budgets communities will be left in a devastated and vulnerable position in terms of accessing vital services,” concluded Deputy McGrath.