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For further information on the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament or if you wish to become an affiliate, please contact us at address below.
Alternatively, you may wish to use the comment box below.
Irish Senior Citizens Parliament
Drumcondra House, DCU All Hallows Campus,
Grace Park Road, Drumcondra, Dublin D09 N920,
Ireland.
Tel: 353 1 700 8431
E-Mail: office@seniors.ie
Irish Senior Citizens' Parliament 
It costs an over 70 person more to renew a supposedly free driving licence than it takes to get a 10 year licence. This is due to the fact that a GPs cert is required GPs are charging in excess of the cost of a ten year licence in order to fill out this certificate. They will not fill it out for free under the over 70 GP card. It is necessary for an over 70 to renew the driving licence every three years therefore much costlier than a ten year licence
Pat Hughes
Does being a qualified adult for years allow me any national insurance contributions to build up towards retirement pension
Linda
You would need to have Full contributions also.
Please send me an email to ceo@seniors.ie and I will respond to you.
Please let me have details of your membership process and do you have a Meath branch?
Dear Michael
Apologies for the delay in replying please send either your email or postal address & we will send you details. Mairead Hayes
I would to bring to the notice of pensioners who are due for a review of there over 70s medical card. I have just had review and have had my card withdrawn as I am exceed the €500 threshold. I have pointed out to the HSE that I am separated and paying Court ordered maintenance which if taken into account would put me under threshold and allow me to keep my medical card. another point the HSE have informed me that when she completes her review form she will have to include the maintenance she receives as her income. In effect the are counting the same monies twice. Has anyone else had this problem with the HSE regarding this
As a retired nurse I see we are now just on the cut off point for extra taxation. It is time our spokespeople spoke out against this, because if we take this imposition without complaint we will be seen a soft touch and will become the first port of call for governments to pare back in future
Hi,
It’s encouraging and comforting to know that there is an Irish Senior Citizens Parliament.
I am interested in hearing from:
anyone who has any knowledge of elder mediation/alternative dispute resolution;
anyone who has heard of it;
anyone who has never heard of it and might like to know more about it;
anyone who has used such a service in Ireland and found it useful; anyone who would like to contribute thoughts and comments on the idea of providing such a service to people who are approaching a vulnerable time in their lives.
It is a matter that has exercised my thoughts for some time and something that I (and most of us) will be facing in the not too distant future.
I think it is important to have all the support we can get to allow us to have an old-age that is as stress-free as possible.
Looking forward to your replies,
Sally
Siobhain
I think there already is one set up.
Mairead
As a retired civil servant on fixed income provided by an inadequate pension I am becoming increasingly woried about the forthcoming “property Tax” and the real possibility of having to sell our house especially if the tax is based on anything like the old “Rateable Valuation” system. I feel that if this tax is imposed without any provision for exemption or reduction based on income perhaps we should be thinking about a possible scheme of appropriate protest. Perhaps something along the lines of the very successful “Medical Card” protest.
If you save for your old age and live frugally ,the government will tax u on the air you breathe, the poople who ate drank and were merry are getting help.
I agree with Anne Kinsella about the spin. Several Irish Times commentators are agreeing that the pensioners should pay. RTE tonight on Prime Time said that the persioners have got most of what they wanted. They have got nothing, only being scammed by two main tactics. Firstly thresholds are being set on gross income which has no relation to income after tax and expenses and so is not real income. In an extreme situation you could have the 73k gross income, pay tax and levies of 16358 on that income and have no actual income after expenses. Lovely scam. Secondly savings are being counted. Harney when pressed by Brian Dobson got flustered and then said this means interest. But for the standard medical card they calculate “Imputed Income” which is not based on interest and is deliberately set very high to force anybody with significant savings to use them up before qualifying. The same method is used to means test pensions. Also in Dail on 16 Oct Coughlan in a reply said the first 20k of savings will be disregarded. This is exactly how the Imputed Income calculation for the standard card and for pensions begins.After that a punitive income is imputed on the rest of savings.I believe it will be same for over 70s so if you have significant savings but no income you are out. Shame on opposition for not seeing the deception. I suggest everybody emails the EU to tell them they will never vote for Fianna Fail or for any EU treaty they propose. The relevant Commissioner is Margot Wallstrom, Vice Presidentof European Commission and Commissioner responsible for Institutional Relations and Communications Strategy. She has a special interest in promoting Lisbon and analysing reactions. I got a very nice reply from her. Send email for her attention to patrick.costello@ec.europa.eu who handles her emails. This issue needs to be exposed in every possible forum as pressure is the only thing which might cause the Government to get real and abandon their current scam/illusion which they are winning. Get emailing !
What are you going to do about the “spin” going on in critism of the protests? The Irish Times editor is a former PD puplic rep. So now she uses her paper to covertly lend her support to Horrible Harney. Be strong and issue a statement in support of the well expressed anger of the people at meetings.
Well done yesterday. A message had been sent and received. However, the next steps will be equally important. Over-70s have found a common bond; we need to keep up the momentum which will be difficult as other controversies surface. Good luck
Another example of the gross income illusion :Married couple, no savings, husband has income, wife has none. Harney’s great new gross threshold means gross income limit 72800 per year. The couple must pay income tax and levies of 16358, yes 16358 per year tax leaving net income limit 56442 or 1085 per week. Out of that pay 100 per week drugs each, 100 per month doctor each, 100 at A&E each, daily hospital charge for first 10 days each, incontinence pads at 1 each say 30euro per week each, consultant and test fees if you need urgent test for internal bleeding or other bad symptom. If your partner goes into nursing home you will have to pay all or part of 900 per week which leaves you with nothing but hey you have a gross income of 1400 per week. Be happy in your ” wealthy situation ” you scrounger on society. Giving you a medical card cannot be justified. We must all take some pain. It is our patriotic duty.Charlie Haughey is alive and well or at least still in the corridors of power. The Seniors Parliament needs to get professional help to combat the Government spin before it is too late. I am not affected as I am only 64 and comfortably off but I am disgusted by what they are doing.
Use of any income threshold for medical over 70s card is an abuse of the elderly and an attack on their health protection. Use of gross income is part of an illusion. Many with savings or expenses which get tax relief will lose their cards because of this. Example: Single pensioner with 100k savings.Imputed income ( irrespective of real income ) from savings is 14040 per year. Take that from the announced 36400 threshold. suddenly the reak threshold is 22360. take away income tax and levies and the person with a net income of 21202 will lose the card at 408 euro per week even if they have major expenses to meet out of that. Now that person has to pay 100 permonth for drugs, 100 to go to A&E, pay private if needing urgent tests for suspected cancer etc.etc. How can the Seniors Parliament put on their website that they “Welcome this announcement ” You are being fooled by clever
spin and illusion “. Harney and Lenihan know exactly what they are doing. There is a tax system for taxing the people with income. Attacking the vulnerable should not be used as a hidden tax on the weakest section of society. You need some professional help to analyse the Government’s moves and to provide some protection by exposing the reality of the so-called generous plans. I am not one of those affected as I am only 64 and am comfortably off but I am incensed on your behalf as I see you being fooled by these i don’t know what to call them.
Keep up the good work.I will be 80 in january and am marginally over the limit…some gift!My niece who is a solicitor thinks that the threshold may not be legal.I will be at the demonstration to day to show solidarity
Please settle for nothing less than the reinstatement of the medical card for all over 70’s.
As I wrote to two ministers yesterday:”… the budget decision to abolish the medical card for over 70’s (which I hasten to add does not affect me) has incensed me, hitting as it does the most vulnerable section of our community for whom the medical card is more fundamentally a source of security in their old age.
… I feel Messrs Cowen, Lenihan, Coughlan and Harney have lost touch with the common people and have made a political blunder of the first order.
Unless this measure is reversed completely I will not vote for any FF candidates in this constituency in the next election and I shall give my vote to whichever party promises to reinstate this card and give some security in their old age to this most vulnerable group.
I shall be at your meeting on Wednesday
Your sincerely
James Kelly
Hello,
as one of the many children of irelands senior citizens I have started a blog today to protest at mr Lenihans withdrawal of the medical cards. I am abroad but am willing to help you out in any way i can to grow the movement against this measure from that arrogant government
Please encourage as many people as possible to login to my blog and post a comment
http://oapsos.blogspot.com/
Lets fight this together!!!
I have been in early retirement for a number of years from the Civil Service, and have recently turned sixty. As a professional Irish Folk singer I am now ashamed to be Irish, we as Irish citizens have no access to the media as in radio and TV to promote our culture. Fortunatly there are a number of us Folk singers still alive, but for how long more. Last year Dermot O’Brien, Tommy Makem and Christy Hennessy passed away R.I.P. and no young singers to replace them. A survey carried out recently on 32 National and Local radio stations showed that less than 5% of air time on radio is Irish Traditional music, while from early morning till noon almost 70% of airtime is talk radio. I am very positive that in most of our years growing up we would have had a very diverse mixture of music and songs on air with only one radio station, I am also sure that there are many senior citizens who would prefer a greater diversity format on the radio. There are people like me who have much to give to society in our singing and songwriting, but sadly we are not being allowed. I have been singing Irish Folk songs as a professional and semi professional since the early 1980’s, travelling the world being employed. I and my friends still want to work, but we are not being allowed. It’s hard to admit but for the first time in my life I haven’t worked in over three months, all because my recordings cannot get access to the airwaves, there are quite a number of musicians and singers in the same predicament and in the same age factor. If a section of our culture is allowed to die because of very poor support, then it’s a very sad day for Ireland.
Dear Sir/Madam
Can you please let me know the situation with the Fair Deal legislation and what is your position on this?
David McCarthy
The Minister for Foreign Affairs recently announced an agreement with Argentina that Irish persons under 35 could go to Argentina to work for a period less than a year. Argentine people (no age specified) could come to Ireland for work for a full year.
Why has the Minister agreed to an anti-age protocol whereby Irish persons of working age over 35 are prohibited, or even more senior Irish persons? This is a very one-sided arrangement and I urge the Senior Citizens Parliament to take issue with the Minister on this matter. Basically this appears to be an anti-ageism practice that should not be tolerated.
Mike Penston