News
“On the sixth day before the budget, Older People asked of Brian …”
Keep the Travel Pass
Dear Brian,
It is essential that the Free Travel Scheme remains in place for all Older People!
The free travel scheme is a major enabling factor in allowing the social participation of Older People in their communities. Social participation is extremely important in tackling loneliness and isolation amongst Older People. Not only does this scheme enable Older People to take part in social and civic life, it also provides them with access to essential services such as hospitals etc.
Many Older People find themselves isolated due to increasing frailty or because of high costs many of them have stopped driving. The number of people holding a full driver’s licence decreases with age; in 2006 only 44.5% of men over 80 and a mere 12.8% of women over 80 had a driver’s licence. Therefore public transport is an essential service for the many people unable to drive themselves. (CSO, 2007)
Taxi fares for a pensioner for medical visits can represent as much as 1/4 of their weekly pension. Recommendations included in the “Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditures Programmes” to reduce the costs in HSE funded non-emergency transport services by 20% would result in this service being cut by 1/5 on the ground. This would only serve to worsen the situation for many vulnerable and sick Older People.
Yours sincerely
Ireland’s Older People
“On the seventh day before the budget, Older People asked of Brian …”
Re-instate the pensioners Christmas payment
Dear Brian,
We strongly urge you to reconsider the withdrawal of the extra week’s payment for pensioners.
This payment provided many vulnerable Older People with additional income to help with the cost of heating and fuel bills during the long winter period.
Older People have become dependent on this extra payment in the dead of winter to help with their fuel, heating and lighting bills. The Central Statistics Office has found that since August 2008 the cost of natural gas has increased by 6.5%, bottled gas has risen by 6.6% and solid fuel by 6.3%. If the proposed carbon tax is introduced in this year’s budget we know that these prices will be further increased.
Hypothermia is a major difficulty for many Older People and causes a number of deaths each year.
We know that almost 10% of pensioner households experience fuel poverty in the winter months. This is an unnecessary type of poverty in today’s society; no person should be forced to endure an Irish winter without adequate heat.
While this payment is termed a “Bonus” the fact is that Older People are reliant on this additional payment to help defray these additional winter costs.
Yours sincerely
Ireland’s Older People
Taoiseach’s understanding of state pension appreciated
The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament appreciated Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s understanding of the difficulties facing older people in his statement of November 18 on the importance of the State Pension and the other support schemes for older people such as the travel, TV licence and telephone allowance.
We in particular noted where Taoiseach Cowen stated that
We should also be mindful that there is a large amount of people who don’t have a lot of disposable income … and, therefore, rely solely on the state pension.
He also went on to say that he was
Proud of the provision we made for pensioners during the good years. It is not my objective to undo all of that good work now
The ISCP were pleased to note An Taoiseach’s assurances that there will be no dismantling of the social infrastructure, including various schemes which are in place to support Older People’s health & welfare, in addition to pensions.
An Taoiseach’s remarks – in particular the further remarks on his webcast – demonstrate an understanding of the various schemes and services, put in place over decades, which protect Older People’s dignity such as the travel and fuel schemes.
Máiréad Hayes, the Parliament’s CEO stated:
We are conscious that we face a difficult situation but it should be appreciated that we in the Parliament hear on a daily basis from Older People living in fear of what is to come.
We will hold An Taoiseach to his promise not to ‘undo the good work’ and to be ‘sensitive to the needs of our pensioners’.
We would also like to say ‘thank you’ to all our member organisations regarding their lobbying efforts to defend their services & pensions. Keep up the good work in the couple of weeks remaining before Budget 2010.
exhorted Ms. Hayes.
ISCP sign Memorandum of Understanding
The Chairs and CEOs of five of Ireland’s age sector NGOs came together on 2 October 2009 at the offices of The Atlantic Philanthropies in Dublin to sign a Memorandum of Understanding. Atlantic seeks to increase the capacity of key organisations, including those made up of older adults, to advocate to protect government services for older adults.
The five organisations are Active Retirement Ireland, Age and Opportunity, The Carers Association, the Irish Senior Citizens’ Parliament and Senior Helpline. The five organisations committed themselves to working together initially on shared premises, collective purchasing and hiring of expertise and a funding initiative.
This Collaboration Initiative process began in May 2009. The anticipated outcomes by 2012 are:
- greater cohesion among the five participating organisations, with regular communication and cooperation with other NGOs becoming a core part of each organisation’s “way of working”;
- shared premises in a number of towns around Ireland with increased visibility of the NGO ageing sector across the country;
- more professional and formalized organisational supports across all the participating NGOs; and
- demonstrated cost savings across a range of goods and services.
A formal review of implementation will be carried out and the scope for broadening and deepening the Collaboration Initiative will be explored.
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- Senior Citizens Parliament meeting in Ireland for policy discussions and senior advocacy.
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- Empowering Irish seniors through active participation and senior rights at the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament.
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- Key representatives from the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament discussing senior citizens’ issues in Ireland.
