Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Time and time again, we hear in the media about a crisis coming down the tracks for which we must prepare. This crisis will require our health service to be adequately resourced and equipped to deal with an influx of patients requiring timely and accessible treatment. Furthermore, we also hear about the detonation of a time bomb, which is sure to have catastrophic consequences. While one could be forgiven for thinking this crisis indicates a looming, dreadful tragedy, the reality is it is one of the great success stories of our time. Irish people are living longer, they are living more healthily and they are living more active lives. One of the consequences of this is that the proportion of our population over the age of 65 is set to increase steeply in the coming years. This poses challenges in how we provide services to support older people to live the lives they choose, but it is also an opportunity to support positive ageing, to see older people as a group that contributes to our society and that benefits our communities. We must prepare to deal with these demographic challenges.

When we talk about planning for an ageing population, what we are talking about is developing an age-friendly society not only for those currently over the age of 65 but for all of us who hope and wish to grow old in the future. Planning requires a whole-of-government approach and while the Departments of Health and Social Protection are the ones we first think of in the context of older people, programmes and initiatives are also run by the Departments of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Environment, Community and Local Government, which provide services and supports to older people.

The national positive ageing strategy, NPAS, sets out a blueprint for how policies and services could be designed to protect the rights of older people. The strategy was finally published in 2013 following six years of discussion. It took the combined efforts of three governments, five political parties and three Ministers for older people simply to get it published. The strategy provides a roadmap for Ireland to begin planning for the needs of older people now and in the decades to come, but more than two and a half years on, we are still awaiting for the implementation plan to set out how this ambitious strategy will be delivered an implemented. It will transform the lives of older people today and the millions of us who hope to grow old. I urge the Minister to prioritise the implementation of this transformative strategy. We will all grow old and we should be able to do so safe in the knowledge that our Government will prioritise our needs.

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