Marie Moloney (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. Mr. Seán Dillon from Older and Bolder is also present, as are the former Lord Mayor, Michael O'Halloran, and Mrs. Connolly, who have come in to listen to the debate.

I welcome the report's recommendations. There is not much to argue with in the report. I hope we will do our utmost to achieve the optimum in protecting and enforcing the rights of older persons. As people are living longer, our older population is increasing. It stands to reason that we restructure and adapt to support such a huge demographic change. I believe by implementing the national positive ageing strategy, we will go a long way towards facing up to and alleviating the trials and challenges older people face today. I have discussed this issue at length with the Minister of State on occasions and I am aware the strategy is at an advanced stage. It will be published before the end of the year, which we welcome, and we will debate the issue again, no doubt when the strategy is about to be published.

Older people should be viewed not as a hindrance but as a huge advantage and resource to society. Older people contribute to society in many ways, through paid and unpaid work, caring roles and as skilled and knowledgeable members of our community. They are the people who have built our country, reared their families, paid their taxes and contributed hugely to society, and now it is our responsibility to ensure we do all we can to make life as easy, as comfortable, as stimulating, as healthy and as fulfilling for them as possible. The intention behind the strategy is to put in place arrangements that would ensure issues affecting older people are mainstreamed in policy making at all levels and across all sectors.

Creating a programme for older people that works takes cross departmental co-operation. We need co-operation from all sectors to ensure a viable, cohesive, sustainable and positive strategy is created and implemented.

Our number one priority must be the publishing and implementation of the positive ageing strategy but there are other issues that I would like to highlight, such as the effect on pension entitlements following changes in the Social Welfare Bill. While I agree with the changes, as the more a person works and contributes, the larger his pension should be at the end of his days, there is one sector of society that these changes will affect through no fault of their own: the women who had no choice but to give up work when they got married under the marriage bar. These women were obliged to give up their job the minute they got married and many of them returned to the workforce when their children were reared, but under new legislation their reduced yearly average will result in a reduced contributory old age pension. I have written to the Minister for Social Protection seeking home maker's credits for these women. It should be easy enough to verify their years as home makers by the children's allowance or by birth certificates. These women whose careers were nipped in the bud are owed something in return.

The age-friendly initiative currently being undertaken in Dundalk should be extended to all towns in Ireland. Louth will be the first age-friendly county in Ireland, and I hope it will lead the way for others to follow. The thinking behind this new strategy has been strongly influenced by the World Health Organization's guideline for age-friendly cities. This strategy can be applied to communities of all sizes.

We should be moving towards a model of care in the community. It is a priority, in so far as possible, that older people continue to live in their own homes. Older people should be able to live in safety and peace, not in fear of being broken into or attacked, as happened in the horrific stories we were alerted to in recent weeks of two sisters and a brother in Limerick and, again last week, of the two brothers in Galway, innocent and vulnerable people who were subjected to horrific, mindless and sickeningly vicious attacks. Safeguards in the form of panic buttons, community alert schemes, senior alert schemes and, above all, harsh penalties for those who commit these horrendous crimes must be looked at. Unfortunately, with increasing lack of confidence in the banking system, some older people are once again reverting to keeping their money at home, which unfortunately makes them targets for such scumbags, if I can use such a word, who resort to intimidating, robbing and violently attacking them in their homes.