Sinn Féin has accused the Government of targeting the elderly from several directions, by cutting home help hours and also cutting care in the community.
The party this evening brought a private members' motion before the Dáil.
It calls for a reversal of the cuts to home help and homecare packages.
Health Spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said that the proposal to cut a further 450,000 home help hours on top of cuts introduced last January will result in a total of one million hours of home help support being lost.
He said: "Our call is for these cuts not to proceed ... We have cuts at one end of the scale in terms of bed numbers in public nursing home facilities and at the other end, the Government are also cutting care in the community. You cannot burn the candle at both ends."
Mr Ó Caoláin said it was "within the gift" of Minister for Health James Reilly to reverse the cuts already in place and not to proceed with the proposal to make additional cuts.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny if he would accept that a promise made in the Programme for Government in relation to care for the elderly was a false commitment.
Mr Kenny said the Minister for Health had to make adjustments based on reality, and said the overall position was that anyone with an assessed need would not be left without.
He added that home help duties, such as assisting with personal hygiene and washing, would have priority over other duties, such as shopping and cleaning.
He said the Health Service Executive had been told to implement €8m of cuts in as sensitive and caring a way as possible.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett asked Mr Kenny if he would reverse "despicable cuts" in services for the elderly.
