Health cuts are hitting Cork families hard with the long awaited opening of a family support service in North Cork now deferred and all child case conferences for the Cork and Kerry region due to be suspended for three weeks in August.

It has emerged that a much needed family outreach service for the North Cork area which would provide vital services for vulnerable families will now not open, with little information available about when the service will finally come in place. The service, which was set to employ two Childcare leaders, one family support worker and a part-time social worker, had been granted funding to go ahead, but, funding for the project has now been withdrawn.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that it will not be possible to hold any Child Case Conferences in the Cork Kerry region for more than three weeks in August. An administrative member of staff needs to be present at every Child Case Conference to take minutes of the meeting , but, because there is just one such member of staff in Cork, when this worker takes their leave this summer, these conferences will not be able to proceed.

The news has been strongly criticised by IMPACT who said that these cutbacks will hit the most vulnerable people. A spokesperson for IMPACT said that funding would not have been allocated for a Family Outreach Centre in North Cork unless there was a dire need for the service and the news that this had now been withdrawn would hit affected families hard. The spokesperson was also very critical of the news that Child Case Conferences would need to be suspended because there is just one administrative worker in this position and said that in light of Tuesday's news that the HSE will cut public health service expenditure by over €500 million in 2008, this is proof of what happens when you dismiss all administrators as surplus to requirements.

Impact say that the HSE's latest announcement would inevitably further undermine existing and promised services, despite ministerial assurances and added that unions were led to expect more cuts in 2009.

Despite the best efforts of the Cork Independent, the HSE were unable to comment on the claims at the time of going to print.

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