Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Ar son Teachtaí Shinn Féin, ba mhaith liom tacú leis an rún in ainmna dTeachtaí Neamhspléacha. Is ceist fíor-thábhachtach é cúram na sean-daoine agus is cinnte gur theip ar an Rialtas seo cúram ceart a chur ar fáil do an-chuid daoine aosta atá ina n-aonar agus atá i mbochtanas sa tír seo.

On behalf of the Sinn Féin Deputies, I support the motion on the care of the elderly in the name of the Independent Deputies and I join in commending them on bringing it forward. The rights of older people and their role in society is a crucial issue of growing importance. I stress the word rights, because this is not only about care for the elderly by others but about the rights and entitlements of older people as members of society. That includes care but also the right to a decent quality of life, employment, housing and health care. We must address the mentality that sees the increasing percentage of older people in our population as a burden. Instead, we should view the experience and wisdom of age as an asset and a positive force, and it is on that basis that provision should be made by Government.

I do not intend to go into detail on the controversy about what the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment said. Whatever she said, it has ensured a debate on the Government's performance with regard to older people. The motion sets out the inadequacy of that record. Other facts not set out in the motion and which I will mention, together with the experience of all elected representatives, tell a fuller story, which for many older people is very depressing.

It was estimated that in 2002 approximately 26% of older people lived alone. Of the 390,000 pensioners in the State, approximately 114,000 live alone. The percentage is higher for those aged over 70 with more than 33% living alone. That is a frightening statistic. One third of that section of our population is condemned to end their days in isolation, away from family and friends and reliant on State services to meet many of their needs, if they are fortunate enough to have such services available to them.

Much of the recent debate has focused on the high cost and often poor standard of residential care and other Deputies will deal with this in the course of the debate. The vast majority of older people live at home and a growing number live alone. The State and society fall down in the provision of services to them.

For example, home helps provide a crucial service for many older people and are often a lifeline and the only human contact in the lonely weekly life of senior citizens. Apart from the domestic help they render, they often provide company to older people in an isolated existence. Despite this, just a few years ago, the women — and home helps are comprised predominantly of women — who provided that service were treated disgracefully and were paid a pittance by the health boards. They had to campaign for even a half decent wage.

Now home help hours have been cut so that the little assistance that was available to many older people has been removed. It is a shame and a disgrace, and no amount of nodding of his head by the Minister will alter the fact that, in my health board region, 84,000 hours of home help were taken from senior citizens and those in such need.

Some of the people worst affected by the home help cuts are those living alone in rural areas. The Minister may not be aware that a higher proportion of older people live in rural areas. The 1996 census found 48% of the older population live outside towns and cities, and these people are now losing out most. The Government will boast of the increased pensions provision but it is still inadequate and of limited use without the services essential to supporting our older citizens in their twilight years.

The Government's amendment to the motion would be laughable if the issue were not so serious and in many cases, as we all should know, tragic. The Minister and his colleagues give themselves a pat on the back for the home help service, but they have cut it back. Yet again, they tried to deny the reality that community employment schemes have provided critical support for many sectors, including senior citizens and people with disabilities. The CE scheme was described primarily as an active labour market programme; it is nothing of the kind. To justify the cuts of some 5,000 places on CE schemes the Government attempted to deny that many of these schemes fill gaps in services to older people, people with disabilities, child care and support for those trying to deal with drug addiction. These services would not be provided otherwise, because the Government has broken a series of promises on the provision of these and other mainstream services.

Last year I raised the issue of a day care centre for the elderly in Cootehill, County Cavan, in the constituency I am proud to represent. The Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, claimed that the cuts in public service posts would have no effect on frontline staff. In Cootehill a new health care centre was provided with a day care centre facility which has not been staffed. It needs four people — a nurse administrator, a driver and two assistants — to provide daily care, five days a week for the senior citizens of that town and its extensive hinterland. It would cater for 200 people in one week, yet the appointments have not been made. The senior citizens' group in Cootehill was offered access to this facility but without the essential staff and on the proviso that it would provide its own public liability insurance.

When the Minister said that cuts will not have an effect in such instances, that is not true, as is borne out in the case I have cited. This is a prime example of the kind of services needed by older people being denied by the Government in a real and substantive way, and there are many more examples similar to the case in Cootehill that I outlined.

The inadequacy of housing provision by this Government is to blame for much of the isolation and deprivation experienced by older people. More than other sectors of the population, older people need access to properly maintained local authority dwellings. They need to be in a safe environment, close to their families and their peers, and in a mixed setting where constructive intergenerational communication can take place. That needs good planning and the provision of high standard accommodation by the local authorities. The ESRI has found that one in four older people living alone has no central heating. Local authorities should have resources made available to provide such heating in all dwellings where it is needed by older people, especially those living alone.

The crisis in housing affects older people acutely, as does the crisis in our health services. We know that many older people and people with disabilities who should be in residential care occupy acute hospital beds because the alternative facilities are not available. This has the knock-on effect of depriving the hospital system of acute beds, for which people wait months and years. Instead of integrated services and the best planning for the future of our ageing population, we have a domino effect of neglect contributing to further neglect.

On behalf of Sinn Féin, my colleague, Ms Mary Nelis, last year launched a charter for older people, and I will conclude by quoting from it:

The aged are no longer willing to be marginalised, or treated as less than equal citizens. They are on the move. Issues affecting senior citizens have moved from the periphery to the centre of the political debate.

They have recognised that negative attitudes to ageing across the island, have prevented the development of policies and structures needed to address poverty, ill health, isolation and violent attacks.

It is an indictment of government policies that thousands of senior citizens die each year from cold related illness and thousands more suffer from the indifference of a cold society. It is time we brought our senior citizens in from the cold.

In putting forward our Charter for Senior Citizens, Sinn Féin pledges that we will support and actively pursue the political and legislative changes necessary to establish a decent standard of living, full access to services and the right of senior citizens to fully participate in the life of their community.

I commend the ethos of that charter to the Minister and his colleagues.

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