A charity which represents older people has criticised Junior Minister Brian Hayes’ comments.

Age Action is today launching a petition to protect the dignity of older people and is seeking the support of the public.

The group says that older people have already been hit by a series of cuts in particular to home care supports for older people.

Head of Advocacy with Age Action is Eamon Timmins.

“Only 5%of older people are on the top income decile; 45% of older people are on the bottom 4 income deciles in this country – they’re on very, very low income” he said.

“A lot of them are struggling; when Brian Hayes says (that) they don’t have a mortgage, they don’t have a mortgage – no”.

“But 57 percent of them have a chronic illness, a third of them have a disability”.

“It’s not just about the mortgage, and I think the reason we need people who signed the petition to go out and talk to their TDs – we need to educate our TDs as to what the challenges of aging are”.

“It’s not about not having a mortgage” he added.

This pensioner gave his reaction to Brian Hayes’ comments that older people need to face cuts.

“I think it’s a very scandalous approach, gaining revenue from people who have worked all their lives” he said.

“A lot of them are on small pensions”.

“He’s talking about the well-off pensioners – but most of the pensioners are not well-off”.

“I think it’s a bit disgusting that he should be bearing down on those people” he added.

The Fianna Fáil leader says his party will oppose the property tax being put forward by the coalition because it cannot possibly raise €500 million.

Micheál Martin also says the elderly must be protected in the Budget and has vowed to fight any change to the free travel scheme for pensioners.

It follows comments from Junior Minister Brian Hayes saying that pensioners had escaped the worst of the cuts so far.

Deputy Martin has attacked Deputy Hayes for suggesting that pensioners should be paying more.

He was speaking as his Parliamentary Party gathered for a meeting in North Dublin before the Dáil returns tomorrow.

Micheál Martin insisted that only the wealthiest pensioners should be asked to pay up.

“Fairness will demand that those on higher incomes – irrespective of what category of society they belong to or what age demographic they belong to – will pay proportionately a bit more than those who are on the bread line” he said.

“And that goes for every sector of society”.

“But we do not believe that we should target a group of people – such as the elderly or pensioners – and say ‘they’re rolling in it’….which in essence is what Brian Hayes was saying in the Irish Times” he added.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is to cut the pay of new hospital consultants by 30%.

Consultants and health managers failed to reach an agreement on a new hospital grade for future consultants at Labour Relations Commission talks overnight.

The HSE will proceed with the pay cut anyway which will mean new consultants will earn 50,000 euro less than those currently working.

The talks also failed to reach an agreement on the issue of rest days and this will now be referred to the Labour Court.

Agreement was reached on a number of other issues though such as 7-day rosters and new working arrangement for clinical directors.

Industrial Relations Officer with the Irish Medical Organisation Steve Tweed says the new pay grade is not part of the Croke Park deal.

“The new bid we believe is outside the public service agreement, that doesn’t form part of the proposals that we’re consulting with our members on” he said.

“It’s really down to the HSE how they want to deal with that going forward” he added.

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) says its being forced to turn people away due to budget cutbacks.

The IFPA 2011 annual report shows it provided services to almost 19,000 clients last year.

That is compared to around 23,000 in 2010.

The sexual health charity says it has been unable to meet the increased demand from medical card holders because of the reduction in funding from the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Niall Behan is the IFPA Chief Executive.

He says the budget allocation for the organisation has fallen by 25 percent in 4 years.

“Contraceptive services are not a service that lends itself to waiting lists; it’s a service that women require, and it’s very difficult for both the staff and the women concerned” he said.

“The cutbacks (have) been over 25 percent over the last 4 years”.

“We would hope that because of the value for money contraceptive services provide, our grant might not be cut again next year” he added.

An investigation is underway after a number of guns were stolen from a shop in Wicklow.

The incident happened at a premises in Ashford 9 days ago.

Newstalk’s Jack Quann has more.