On Wednesday 14th February 2024, The Alliance of Age Sector NGOs attended Leinster house, presenting their latest hard-hitting report ‘Taking stock: Is Government keeping its commitments to older people?’. The report highlights a significant failure of Government to deliver many of Ireland’s policy commitments for ageing and older people.
The Alliance represents seven leading older persons organisations including the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament. The Alliance called on all political parties to include a commitment in their manifestos, ahead of the next general election, to establish an Independent Commissioner for Ageing and Older People and to relaunch the National Positive Ageing Strategy (2013) with a strong implementation and monitoring plan and a ring-fenced budget.
An Independent Commissioner would support the effective mainstreaming of ageing across Government while also holding Government and public bodies to account. An ageing Ireland is something that affects people of all ages. We all want to age well. As a country we must, therefore, strive to become an Ireland that leads the world in becoming age-attuned, age-accommodating and age-friendly.
We have a wonderful opportunity in Ireland to embrace our improving life expectancy, to promote independent living and add healthy years to life. And we must embrace it.
If you would like to read the report in full you can download it by clicking HERE