Ms Máiread Hayes:

I thank the Chairman and members for inviting us here. The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament is a representative umbrella organisation of older people in Ireland. It is an open, democratic organisation where all officers are elected by the members. It is a non-party political and not for profit, and it works to improve the quality of life of older people and to ensure that the views of older people in policy development and decision-making are made known to Government and the wider civic society. It has over 330 affiliated organisations and has a genuine mandate to be the voice of older people.

We are pleased to note that at last there appears to be a light at the end of a very long period of austerity. Hopefully sometime soon we can decently bury austerity and we look forward to that. Older people are tired, weary and miserable living under its tyranny in so many areas of their lives. As we prepare for our ninth budget since austerity, older people are ever hopeful that some of their concerns will be listened to, heeded and followed by appropriate actions in budget 2015. I could continue about the suffering but I might skip some of that.

We welcome that the level of State pension was maintained during austerity. However, the myth that older people have not been affected by the recession and the austerity measures is just not true. All our citizens and families have felt the brunt of ongoing austerity. In response to our meetings and questionnaires, older people have told us they cannot take any more cuts, additional charges, taxes, levies or any measure to further reduce their income or cut their services.

An examination of the position shows very clearly that while the basic rates have been maintained, the value and buying power of the older person, and in particular older people living alone, have been very much reduced. In this budget, we are again making a plea for their position to be considered as well as those of the older old. That is very clear through all of what we are requesting.

Older people provide vital services to their families and others through their roles as volunteers, carers, grandparents and childminders. In addition, older people continue to assist adult children and grandchildren by sharing what assets they have with them and in many cases providing a home to adult children and grandchildren who otherwise might be homeless.

During their working lives, pensioners were encouraged to save and provide for old age through investments, property and private pensions. For those who could not afford or were not given the opportunity to do this, they placed their faith and trust in the PRSI system to provide them with a pension when they came to need it. Most of them had the expectation that they would get a State pension at age 65.

Increasingly, we note a concern that the prices of goods, services and houses in some areas are getting out of control, and unless there is close and vigilant monitoring by the Government, this could be a problem in the future. We have done some monitoring with some of our groups and we see increases in prices of some hotels, restaurants and food of approximately 8%. We hope the Government will monitor this and it is very important that one Government Department examines it closely.

We look forward to the day when we can finally find out what happened in Ireland because we are discovering from courts abroad how people transferred huge sums of money out of Ireland. We eagerly await the results and verdicts from those jurisdictions to tell us what happened here because it is too slow. Regarding the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill (No 2) 2013, pensioners were amazed and aghast at the speed with which scheme trustees moved to reduce the amounts paid to pensioners. There are many examples of groups that are going through section 50 in this regard.

Income and access to services are the two most important areas for older people as they age. In our survey, older people told us the loss of the household benefits package was a priority issue, particularly the loss of the telephone allowance. We were astonished at the number of people who marked this as their No. 1 issue. While we recognise that it cannot all happen immediately, we ask that in this budget a start be made on the restoration of a number of these benefits. Giving people money is not the best way to go. Instead services should be provided. We are afraid that money does not provide the service and it can leave older people open to financial abuse, which we are concerned about. Electricity charges in Ireland are higher than in most European countries. One of the reasons the household benefits package was abolished in some of its formats was that the Government was not able to bulk buy and this should be examined in more detail.

In the budget we seek the restoration of the telephone allowance, the return to a system of utilities payments based on units rather than cash payment and discussions to commence to frame an agreed timetable for the return of the remaining benefits. We are also concerned about the loss of the transition pension and in respect of this we ask that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, push the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, to put in place the necessary legislation to allow older people who so wish to continue to work until they are aged 66, so they can work until they get the State pension. This is very important. In view of the special position of some workers, their jobseeker's benefit should be increased by €5 per week to €193 for the year during which they wait. Similarly, we ask that an additional €5 per week be given to unemployed people aged 65 because they receive only €188. The universal pensions for all and the women in pensions position is covered in our submission.

We are making a special plea for people living alone. We receive many calls from survivors who find that two can live nearly as cheaply as one. Examples of this are the prescription charges cap which is per household irrespective of whether it is for one or two people, making a difference between €25 and €12.50, and the drug refund scheme, for which the difference is between €144 and €72.

That is the difference between €25 and €12.50 and €1.44 and 72 cent.

There should be a €5 increase in the living alone allowance. We also wish to have the prescription charge limit and the drugs refund limit examined. Similarly, on the age allowance, many people are living longer. Any savings they might have are spent and gone by the time they are 80 years of age. The fuel allowance - which is a life saver for many older people - should be extended for two weeks and there should be a commitment to examining the possibility of restoring its duration to 32 weeks and to agreeing a payment based on a particular drop in temperature in a particular year. At the moment, the weather is not severe and that is to be welcomed. We welcome the Minister's assurance that the travel scheme is going to be maintained in its current format. We are very pleased to hear that.