More than 1,000 senior citizens protested in central Dublin in a rally against cuts to medical cards. Around 35,000 people will lose their medical cards under Budget cutbacks announced last week.
The rally came five years to the day after a huge protest forced Fianna Fáil to scrap means testing for medical cards for pensioners.
These people outside Leinster House explained why they were protesting earlier.
Meanwhile, Age Action says the charity has been inundated with calls from pensioners in recent days extremely concerned over the abolition of the bereavement grants and telephone allowance.
People gathering outside Leinster House earlier today
The charity says older people are extremely anxious about the reduced threshold for medical cards for over-70s. The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament and Age Action says the older generation have been unfairly hit.
Eamon Timmins is spokesman for Age Action and urged others to get involved.
