Fintan O'Toole's article in todays Irish Times nails the nonsense that cuts in social investment represent a good way to save money in the long term.
Far from it, as he most convincingly argues: "Cutting social services is often an exercise, not in reducing costs, but in recategorising them – usually from a relatively cheap heading to a very expensive one. Reducing home help for elderly people shifts more of them into acute hospitals and nursing homes. Not helping a child with learning problems early on means either that the problem will be treated later when it is much worse or that it will not be treated at all, making it likely that the child will grow up to a life on the dole. Cutting drug treatment in the community means we’ll end up doing it in prison – at a multiple of the cost."
Read the full article here.
