Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I salute the Technical Group for bringing forward this timely motion. It is only right and proper that we have this debate. We have had similar debates over the past several years because, unfortunately despite the Minister’s rhetoric, the elderly have not been protected in this Government’s lifetime. Pope Francis, a man whom I admire and who has won great admiration across the world for his directness, humility and how he has always spoken out for the marginalised in society, said:

We live in a time when the elderly do not count. It's awful to say, but they are discarded. Because they are a nuisance to us. The elderly are those who carry history, that carry doctrine.

He concluded that we must also remember those elderly who live in retirement homes, especially those abandoned by their families.

How right he is. I have huge admiration for our senior citizens. They played a pivotal role in building our State to what it is today. They worked long and hard and paid their taxes. One need only think back to the hardships they endured. When one talks to one’s grandparents, even parents in some cases, one hears of how they went to school barefoot and brought turf to ensure the school was adequately heated. There were those who worked on building sites without the support of the machinery we have today. Now, when they come to live out their twilight years, they wish to do so in a degree of comfort, security and decency which they deserve.

The manner in which this Government has targeted our senior citizens over the past several years has been nothing short of disgraceful. It flies in the face of its commitment in the programme for Government and the national positive aging strategy which aims to “enable people to age with confidence, security and dignity in their own homes and communities for as long as possible.”

Unfortunately, senior citizens' confidence has been eroded and their security, snatched. They have been robbed of their dignity.

It does not do the Government any good to state it has maintained the level of the statutory old age pension. That is true; there is no disputing it and it is a factual statement, but senior citizens are enraged when they hear it. What the Government fails to state is that, despite a promise made in the run-up to the general election and subsequently by the then Opposition spokesperson for health, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy James Reilly, that he would abolish prescription charges, not alone did he not abolish them but he also increased them fivefold, with a maximum figure of €25 a month for a single person or €50 a month for a couple. Eligibility for items under the medical card were removed. There was also a reduction in the income threshold under the over-70s medical card. The telephone allowance was abolished, even though it not only provided security for the elderly and kept them in contact with their families but also was a lifeline in terms of the emergency pendant worn around the neck. There was a reduction in the number of weeks for which the fuel allowance was paid. There was also a reduction in the number of the ESB units availed of by senior citizens. There was the introduction of the property tax and water charges. From where does the Minister of State think all of these charges were met? They were met from the old age pension.

Seven out of ten senior citizens live exclusively on the State pension. The contributory old age pension is €230.30 a week, while the contributory pension is €219. A senior citizen in my constituency is paying €36 a week in rent on her local authority house, full prescription charges for her medication, has to have a telephone in order to have the pendent around her neck, has to heat her house and eat. She is left with nothing at the end of the week. Recently I visited her on 80th birthday and asked if she was doing anything to mark it. She replied that, apart from some of her children bringing her out, she could not afford to do anything. Is that letting someone live with decency?

I have stated 70% of pensioners live exclusively on the State pension. As for the other 30%, most live on a small private pension. Even at that, the Government did not leave it alone. It chose to rob them and reduce their income.

It has often been said that in good times money is wasted. In the period 2001 to 2009 in actual terms the old age pension was increased by 65%. If one takes into account the rate of inflation, at 25%, there was a net increase of 40%. It was the right thing to do. It was right to give senior citizens something back because they had given so much to the foundation and development of the State.

When one looks at the recent media coverage of the wage increase granted to retired and retiring politicians and notes that the Government has chosen to give an increase to persons on salaries or pensions a multiple of what senior citizens have to live on, it shows what its priorities are in increasing the economic well-being of the population. There is the ludicrous situation where the Taoiseach has said the Government would like the people concerned to give it back. Why was it given in the first instance? It sends all the wrong signals and is morally wrong at a time when so many are living on a basic income of €230 a week or less than €12,000 a year.

It was stated in the programme for Government in 2011, "Investment in the supply of more and better care for older people in the community and in residential settings will be a priority of this Government." Despite the fact that we have an ageing population, why was there a reduction of over 1 million in the number of home help hours, from 11.7 million in 2010 to 10.3 million in 2014? In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, there was a reduction of 60% between 2012 and 2013. I do not have the figure for 2014.

There is talk about the provision of housing grants that were introduced to ensure houses could be adapted for those with a disability to enable them to stay in their own homes, to ensure housing for the elderly could be insulated and that they could have their windows and doors replaced to ensure they would be comfortable. What did the Government do? It changed the eligibility criteria. The limit was increased from 60 to 66 years, while the amount paid out was slashed. In 2010, at the height of the recession, €1.6 million was spent on grants for the elderly in County Westmeath. In 2013 a figure of €561,000 was spent. I know an elderly couple in their 80s who cannot obtain a housing adaptation grant. For the first time since I became involved in public life in 2014, there is a waiting list to have necessary housing adaptations carried out. I know a constituent who recently received a grant - for some reason or other, this year's grants were announced late - and although the rain was leaking through her back kitchen, she could only receive 50% of what she needed to repair the roof. She cannot afford to pay the other 50% and has asked what is she to do. We are trying to get value for her from different builders to see if they can do the work at a reduced rate. That should not be happening, given that the Government is talking about people having a sense of decency and respect and about ensuring they can live independently in their own homes.

I have received a telephone call this evening from a lady who is looking after her sister who is blind. She is in receipt of carer's allowance, while her sister is receiving blind person's allowance. She received her bill for water charges today and has left a message on my telephone tonight that she simply cannot afford to pay them.

There was an 83 year old lady in my clinic the other day whose daughter had applied for carer's allowance, but lo and behold, it had been refused. That is a symptom of what is happening time and again. Frankly, it is a delaying tactic on the part of the Department of Social Protection which is seeking to put every obstacle in people's way. It refuses people on the first occasion in the hope they may go away and not come back a second time. That is not good enough. It is disgraceful.

The Minister for Social Protection should instruct her officials to ensure that when a comprehensive application is submitted it is dealt with in a timely manner and obstacles are not put in the way of people who are saving the State money. Those in receipt of a carers allowance are the only people actually working for their social welfare payment.

I will talk about the unbelievable manner in which we are treating our elderly when it comes to hospital waiting lists. I could have spent my 15 minutes giving examples of people who are waiting in excess of two years for procedures such as hip replacements, knee replacements or the removal of cataracts. I know a man aged 80 who lives in rural Ireland and whose only means of independence is his car. He was told he cannot drive until his cataracts are removed and that he could be waiting two years for the operation. This Government is making him a prisoner in his own home. If the Minister wants to talk about ensuring decency and respecting the people who were the founders of our State, who helped to build our State and worked so hard, he should live up to the commitments in the programme for Government. Let us prioritise the most vulnerable and most marginalised, who do not seem to have a voice at the Cabinet table where so many disastrous decisions on cuts have been made in the past four and a half years. The Government should show its commitment to our senior citizens and restore many of the schemes it has cut in the past number of years. It should live up to its commitments to ensure our senior citizens can live in the independence of their own home, in security and decency. As the Minister said, how we treat our senior citizens says a lot about who we are as a society.

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