Ena O’Mahoney, Vice-President of the Irish Senior Citizen’s Parliament spoke yesterday at the seminar, ‘Enriching the College Community with Older Lifelong Learners’ in Trinity College. She told her audience of the wealth of ‘mental capital’ accrued by older people in this country and how, if utilised, it could benefit the whole of society.
Vice-President: Ena O'Mahoney
The seminar highlighted the fact that education is a lifelong activity and showed that older learners attending college are as committed to learning as their younger colleagues
Ms O’Mahoney particularly stressed the role that lifelong learning can play in combating social exclusion and loneliness, pointing out that for those who pursued further education as older students:
“There is the chance to enjoy a new sense of community with people who share their interests and passions, providing opportunities for socialising and progression routes to whole new worlds of experience, effectively counteracting what can be a period in life when social contacts decline.”
The ISCP warmly welcomes this initiative taken by Trinity College.
The Parliament also welcomes the presence of Minister for State, Seán Haughey at the seminar as a demonstration of the government’s support to the commitments made in the Social Partnership Agreement, Towards 2016, to maximise adult and community educational opportunities for older people. In particular the Parliament agreed with his statement that ‘Education should also be a means of ensuring greater social contact, exchange of ideas and mutual respect between the generations.’
TCD Vice-Provost/ Chief Academic Officer Prof Patrick Prendergast; Vice President of Irish Senior Citizens Parliament Ena O'Mahoney; Age Action Ireland representative Senator David Norris; Psychology Student Philip Martin Murray; Minister of State with Responsibility for Lifelong Learning Sean Haughey; Lecturer in Adult Nursing Jacinta Kelly and event organiser Jennifer Ryan.
The DTSS provides medical card holders with basic dental treatment and ensures that medical card holders receive pain relief, preventative treatment, denture services and emergency care. Budget 2010 limited DTSS expenditure to €63million at a time of rising demand. The HSE’s April circular could mean that 1.6 million medical card holders may be denied routine treatments such as fillings and extractions.
Taking the average of €230 and €400 it appears that older people will have to provide an extra €330 per year for dental treatment to add to the additional costs of the carbon tax, the introduction of prescription charges and a decrease or abolition in waivers for waste charges as well as VAT on local authority charges to name but a few.
The issues involved are straight-forward: the Irish Social Contract entitles people who have paid for pensions to get their pension rather than live in fear that it will be taken away from them at their time of need in retirement. The proposals being attributed to the Minister would penalise the majority of Older People of whom 84% of over-65s and 89% of over-75s rely on social transfers, to save a little on the few who are outside these categories.
