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.
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”.
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’.
Responding to the comments made by Minister for Health Mary Harney, Maíréad Hayes CEO of the Parliament has said that the proposed 50 cent charge per prescribed item could result in a hefty monthly charge for some Older People.
Combined with the fact that Older People’s incomes have already been reduced by 2% this year due to the withdrawal of the Christmas Bonus, the Parliament fears that Older People will find it hard to meet these charges, or may be forced to stop taking their medication.
We have maintained for some time that the Fair Deal was not fair as basic items which we consider as essential for the care and comfort of Older People are excluded from the Scheme. Of particular concern is the fact that the price negotiated by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) on behalf of the Minister for Health & Children does not include incontinence pads and normal services such as chiropody, dental treatment, therapies and other items essential for the care and comfort of Older People.
Here are a few pictures from the March in Dublin.
We are aware that these are difficult times however we should judge society by how it treats society’s most vulnerable. We continue to urge Government to demonstrate its concern by protecting Ireland’s older citizens in Budget 2010.
