Calls to reverse fund axe

City councillors are to write to the Minister for Health asking him to reinstate a training allowance for students with disabilities.

It was announced during the summer that the rehabilitative training allowance, worth €31.80 a week per student, was to be axed in the autumn for new entrants.

At Monday’s Cork City Council meeting, councillors passed a motion calling for the decision to be reversed and to write to the Minister Simon Harris asking him to do that.

Sinn Féin Cllr Thomas Gould, whose motion it was, said that councillors from various political parties gave their commitment in the run up the election that they would stand up for the people it was affecting in Cork.

He branded the slashing of the allowance as “disgusting”.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Tony Fitzgerald said that everyone was disappointed when the decision wasn’t reversed in the recent Budget 2020 announcement.

He said: “Some of the people its effecting go on placement where I work and they have very unique skills and talents.

“They do an awful lot for society.”

He said the decision to cut the funding was “a disgrace” and he encouraged the Fine Gael councillors on Cork City Council to lobby the health minister to reverse the decision.