Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I refer to their parents. I referred in this document to the fact that people want to educate themselves further to return to work In her speech, the Minister of State announced she has secured €900,000 to help fund child care for parents involved in part-time education. This is a most innovative measure. As Senator Norris stated, women have vision and it took vision to achieve what the Minister of State achieved. I am delighted I pushed that recommendation in my document.

My adopted mandate focuses on both ends of the spectrum, child care and ageing and ageism. In the document on ageing which I produced in the summer, recommendation No. 11 referred to further education for those in employment and for older people. Further education for those in employment is the key to career advancement. People aged from 50 years upwards must be given the opportunity to develop new skills and keep up to date with new practices and technology to improve their employability. This is most important, rather than saying that a person is finished when he or she reaches the age of 50. We should look at re-educating 50 year olds so they can hold on to their jobs or change them if they wish.

The other matter that is dear to my heart is for further education to be made easily accessible to older retired people to help them lead active lives and foster a more positive sense of self. This would prolong a happy and healthy life. The back to education allowance is not available to persons in receipt of pensions, despite being available to a range of other social welfare recipient categories. The underlying assumption appears to be that older people would not be interested in further education. They are perceived to be a monolithic group that wishes to retire quietly. In reality, older people are as diverse a group as the Members in this Chamber. In recommendation No. 11, I suggested that the back to education allowance would be extended to those in receipt of the State contributory and non-contributory pensions to access second and third level education.

People were most interested in my document on ageing and ageism. I was in County Donegal recently and I intend to visit another part of that county soon. I spoke to an active retirement group at Serenity House in Moville, County Donegal. Serenity House was established in 2001 with a philosophy of self help and of recognising the contribution of rural older people to society and to the community in which they live. The aim of the Serenity House Active Retirement Association is to create a sense of independence and self help, to raise consciousness and to encourage the continued development of talents and abilities in older people. To date, Serenity House has 75 registered active retired members attending its education centre.

Serenity House proposes to provide lifelong learning for the older population of Inishowen, enabling older people to become confident users of technology so they can participate more fully in modern life. The director of the organisation is Ms Maura Cannon and it is supported by Councillor Marian McDonald. They are aware that computer skills are essential to modern living and that every facility should be made available to older people to acquire these skills, if necessary through new technology courses specially tailored for older people. These would enable older people to recognise the growing contribution of technology in promoting independence and in the improvement of social stimulation, communication, information, personal development, health care and so on. The growing use of the world wide web as a communication medium for older people will be encouraged in Serenity House. We have all realised how we can keep alive and nurture relationships via e-mail. It gives a new opportunity to older people to keep in touch with family members throughout the world.

Serenity House is arranging for the construction of 30 apartments to support independent living for the elderly in Moville. It is also intended to help the residents of these apartments to be educated in technology so they can keep in touch with their families and have a good life.

It is very difficult to access funding for education for older people because it is not seen as economically viable. I am sure the Minister of State will agree this is a short-sighted view. Education for our older citizens should be seen as a positive investment in the community.

I thank the Minister of State for achieving extra funding of €1 million for child care and for encouraging people to return to education. We will miss the Minister of State when she retires from her position.