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An Age Friendly Society

The Challenge

Ireland faces a demographic revolution for which it is largely unprepared. Over the coming decades the number of citizens aged over 65 is set to double, while the number of those living beyond 85 will treble. Advances in medicine, diet and incomes have transformed the nature of old age, but they have also changed our expectations of it. Senior citizens are more active, remain independent for longer and expect to partake fully in society.

Yet society has failed to respond to these changes with public policies capable of meeting these new expectations and satisfying these needs. The increased longevity of our population is a cause for celebration. This is not a problem, but rather an opportunity. It is an opportunity for our older citizens to avail of activities, opportunities and resources that they did not have before and it is an opportunity for society as a whole to avail of their wisdom, skills and resources.

Among the primary requirements for the enjoyment of the older years are adequate incomes and good health services, including long-term care. While virtually all older people want to continue to live in their own homes, and the vast majority succeeds in doing so, Ireland lacks a coherent and rational system for supporting those who can stay at home, and caring for those who cannot.

Older people face particular forms of discrimination and are often treated as invisible by the state and by wider society. In a world that can be heavily youth-focused, the contribution that older people make must be recognised. However, we should go beyond simply giving our senior citizens their due to ask what we can do to actively improve their quality of life. We need to move the debate about aging on from health and maintenance alone to how older people can be enabled to make the best of their senior years.

Our challenge is to create An Age Friendly Society. To succeed, we need to introduce fundamental change across the full spectrum of public policy.

Ireland can do better

The Labour Party wants to create an Age Friendly Society which ensures that our older citizens are able to enjoy the prosperity that they have created, the security to which they are entitled and the care and services they require, and can play a full part in the life of the community.

What Labour will do

An Age Friendly Society

It is the responsibility of government to create An Age Friendly Society as recommended by the Council on Ageing and Older People. Labour's strategy for senior citizens will be founded on the UN Principles for Older Persons: Independence, Participation, Care, Self-fulfilment and Dignity.

Older-Friendly Government

Improving and enhancing the lives of our older citizens requires a whole of government approach.

We will establish an Office for Senior Citizens, similar in design to the Office for Children, to address issues relating to aging from a 'whole of government' perspective.

There are few groups in society more vulnerable, or dependent on others to assert rights on their behalf, than older people.

We will establish an ombudsman for older people

We will end discrimination against older people, including:

• We will ensure that upper age limits do not apply to screening services.
• We will implement a programme of training in the health services to ensure that older people are not treated in a discriminatory manner.
• We will change the legislation which prevents people aged 70 and over from serving on juries. Everyone will be eligible to serve but people over 65 will be excusable as of right.
• We will change other legislation which imposes an upper age limit on people serving on certain state boards.

Income Adequacy

Older people, like all others, need an adequate income in order to avoid poverty and to enjoy a good quality of life. The State Pension needs to be significantly enhanced in order to provide older people with an adequate income.

What Labour will do:

• Raise the level of the State non-Contributory pension to €300 by 2012.
• Introduce a National Waiver Scheme to meet the cost of service charges in all areas - this would replace the current waiver scheme and also provide assistance to those people who cannot avail of the waiver scheme because the services are provided by private companies.
• Allow non-contributory pensioners to earn money from self-employment as well as employment without affecting their pension.
• Provide specific training programmes for older people who wish to work or be self-employed.
• We will introduce a more flexible approach to retirement so that those who wish to work beyond 65, and are capable of doing so, will have a statutory entitlement to protection against being required to retire on grounds of age subject to necessary exceptions (e.g. in defence and security).

Active Aging and Full Participation

Older people are entitled to live active lives, to avail of opportunities for education and personal development, and to play a full part in the life of the community.

Labour will:

• Develop an 'Out And About' €1 ticket scheme, which will allow people over 65 access to sporting and cultural venues. We will include relevant state-supported cultural venues, and invite major sporting organisations to participate. Our goal is to provide older people with access to theatres, concert venues, sports stadia for €1. Bringing the scheme into operation will require negotiation with major sporting and cultural organisations, but we believe they will appreciate the benefits to them of such a scheme.
• Many seniors are anxious to continue to contribute their time, energy, skills and wisdom to their community and to their country. We will issue a call to service to all people over 65 years who wish to give of their time and skills, individually or in groups, and will establish a national database of older volunteers which can be accessed by voluntary organisations and NGOs, who will in turn be encouraged to call on the skills of older people.
• We will put in place a specific access to education programme for those older people who wish to avail of it.
• We will help voluntary organisations to arrange transport and other facilities to enable older people to avail of the opportunities provided by sports and culture programmes.

Personal Protection

We will introduce a number of measures to address the problems of elder abuse and to ensure protection for vulnerable adults

The vast majority of older people are able to make and implement their own decisions and they do not need any special protection. A minority does need protection and they are not adequately catered for at present. They need protection from abuse whether it is physical, mental, sexual or financial.

• We will put in place a protection system for vulnerable older people, including those who may be subject to physical, emotional, sexual or financial abuse.
• We will also introduce substitute decision making and protection arrangements for vulnerable adults along the lines of the proposals put forward by the Law Reform Commission. This means that adults who are unable to make decisions may have adult guardians appointed to make decisions on their behalf.
• There will be an overall supervisory Public Guardian system to ensure that vulnerable adults are protected. This system will also supervise social welfare agency arrangements. Special protections will be provided for people in long stay care.

Our challenge is to create An Age Friendly Society. To succeed, we need to introduce fundamental change across the full spectrum of public policy.

Long term Care

Long term care arrangements for older people in Ireland are unplanned, inadequate, inequitable and under-funded. People who are in need of care, and especially those who have to leave their homes and go into long stay institutional care, are among the most vulnerable members of our society. A civilised society which respects human rights and promotes human dignity should be judged on the way care is provided for the elderly and on the quality of life provided by the care system.

What Labour will do:

• Provide at least 1500 public long stay beds immediately, 600 of them in Dublin.
• Provide for an assessment of need leading to an individual care plan, based either on enabling a person to live at home with appropriate adaptations and/or supports, which includes financial supports and respite care, or on providing a supported living arrangement.
• Equivalent financial arrangements should be made for people who need care and who live at home as for people who go into long stay care. These arrangements will be transparent and equitable.
• Legislate for the right to core community care services, such as home nursing, care assistant and home help services.
• Integrate community care and housing policies so that older people may have a range of residential options and supported living arrangements, including staying in their own homes with adaptations if necessary, sheltered housing, community homes and public and private nursing homes.
• Ensure that all care facilities, public and private, are subject to stringent quality control, through the establishment of a Patient Safety Authority.
• Ensure that all senior citizens are involved in decisions about their care.
• Put in place a system of substitute decision making for older people who are unable to make decisions for themselves.
• Continue the provision of free GP services to the over 70s. We will also expand the number of medical cards to cover 40 per cent of the population, which will ensure that a much greater number of older people will be eligible for a medical card.
• Tackle the deficiencies in the availability of Home Care Nurses, care assistants and home helps.
• We will abolish the means test for carers.
• Introduce tight regulation over equity release schemes, and provide independent advice, through the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, on the rights and options of seniors who own property.

Financing of Care

It is clear that only a small proportion of older people who need extensive care can afford to pay for this service from their own resources. Labour believes that the medical and nursing element of long-term care should be free of charge, as it would be to an older person with any other medical condition. We consider that those who can afford to do so should be required to pay for, or contribute towards, the cost of their personal care and maintenance. This should be subject to the person having an income for personal needs which is consistent with human dignity.

• We do not consider that family members other than spouses should be required to contribute towards the costs of the care of older people.
• We are opposed to the Harney scheme to appropriate a share of the family home to pay for long-stay care.