Mr. Justin Moran:

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend the meeting. According to the 2011 census, almost 230,000 people over the age of 65 are living in what the Central Statistics Office classifies as rural areas and small towns. Age Action Ireland members and older people in rural areas who use our services tell us about the impact of cuts to public services in their communities. Many of the issues they highlight fall under five themes, namely, transport, communications, health care, income and security. I will focus on these five areas in turn in my presentation.

Rural public transport is vital for older people to access work, education, leisure, medical and social services. In many places, there is no direct transport to hospitals serving rural areas, leaving older people to pay for taxis to attend appointments. For people living in Baltinglass, County Wicklow, for example, there is no direct link with the local hospital in Naas and the cost of a taxi is €30 each way. Where rural transport is available, the service is based on the needs of those commuting to work, which leaves older people with long waits for a return bus. In some cases, the service operates only once or twice a week. The purpose of the rural transport programme is to provide a quality community-based public transport system in rural areas. We are not convinced the funding and commitment are there to meet that objective. Recent reports that Iarnród Éireann routes are under threat and there are doubts about the sustainability of the Bus Éireann expressway service have compounded those concerns. As more than one older person has observed to us, the travel pass is not worth much if there are no buses or trains on which to use it. I urge the committee to examine progress in delivering actions set out in the national positive aging strategy more than three years ago to provide elderly-friendly rural transport and better public transport links to health facilities.

The lack of public transport means many older people in rural areas rely on their cars and face rapidly rising motor insurance costs. We ask members to consider the recommendation by their colleagues in the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, following their hearings on the motor insurance industry, that the Minister conduct an analysis of the impact of substantial insurance premia increases on rural communities.

The second issue is communications. More than 200 post offices have been closed by An Post since 2007, with serious consequences for many rural communities. In the west Galway village of Cleggan, for instance, the local post office closed in September 2015, leaving Cleggan's 260 residents having to travel 3 km to Claddaghduff for postal services. As a local resident explained, pensioners and people with disabilities are struggling to collect their benefits. The closure of post offices, in tandem with determined efforts by the banking sector to close or restrict branches while pushing customers online, has eroded older people's control over their finances. In turn, this has made them more reliant on family members to conduct their business, making them vulnerable to financial abuse, which is the second most commonly reported form of elder abuse. We support the call by the Irish Postmasters Union to this committee for a five-year plan to develop the post office network and the services it provides.

Digital literacy is now a necessity for accessing information, managing one's finances and maintaining contact with family and friends. On an annual basis, Age Action Ireland provides one-to-one computer training to some 3,500 older people across the country. Accessing digital information is a particular challenge for older people as half of those aged 60 to 74 - more than 260,000 people - have never used the Internet. Among those aged 75 and over, the figure is negligible at only 3%. For those living in rural communities the challenge is greater again as a lack of comprehensive quality broadband creates further barriers to getting online. We have had people do our training courses who are unable to use their home computers because they do not have access to quality broadband. Older people in rural areas can experience isolation and loneliness, particularly as younger generations move away. A quality rural broadband service would enable them to remain connected.

The third area of concern is health care. Access to health care is of critical importance to older people, who are more likely to suffer from chronic illnesses and are the most frequent users of GP services. The Irish Independentreported earlier this year that almost 5,000 people in rural areas do not have access to a permanent GP. A 2015 report by the Irish College of General Practitioners noted:

A rural-urban divide which mirrors the existing private-public divide is emerging. Seven per cent of rural patients live within walking distance of their GP compared to 89 per cent of urban dwellers.

This touches on some of the rural transport issues to which I referred. Older people in rural areas find it particularly challenging to access home care supports because home help staff are not paid for transit time between calls. This can make it difficult to obtain home help services, especially where the practitioner must travel a long way to provide a half an hour of care to different clients.

The fourth challenge that arises relates to income. Older people in rural areas have smaller incomes and greater expenses compared with their urban counterparts. In its 2013 Survey on Income and Living Conditions, the CSO found that older people in rural areas consistently had a higher at risk of poverty rate than those living in urban areas, by as much as ten percentage points. Research undertaken by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice shows that older people living in rural areas also face higher costs, with much of the difference in expenditure relating to the need to run a car because of the lack of an adequate public transport network. The CSO confirms that older people living in rural areas have much lower incomes than those living in urban areas, as well as higher costs. In addition, they are more dependent on social transfers and less likely to have occupational pensions.

Finally, security issues continue to be one of the top issues of concern for older people who contact our information service. Committee members will be aware of the recent report in the Irish Daily Mailon the CSO figures which show that assaults on victims over the age of 65 have more than doubled since 2006. The closure of 100 Garda stations in 2013, the majority of which were in rural areas, has added to feelings of isolation among older people, many of whom took reassurance from the physical presence of a local station. While the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime is often overstated, the fear of crime is a real and damaging phenomenon to the mental health of many older people.

I thank committee members for their time.