Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise in the House something that has come to my attention in the last few months. The fact is that we need to do more for our old people. They are probably suffering the most. I am receiving telephone calls from many old people who have major concerns. Some of them live in cold houses. They have been in contact with me since August about it, but nothing has been done. Some of them want home help, but they are not physically disabled. To get home help on mental grounds one has to be completely dishevelled, falling apart and not dressing or feeding oneself. The standard has to be very low and there does not appear to be any formula for getting home help to prevent somebody getting into that state.

The main cause of their problems is loneliness. We must start to recognise loneliness as a justified reason to provide home help if there are no family members and people receive no visitors. I believe some of the people are reaching out to me because they are lonely and not for any other reason. I do not know if my colleagues concur with me, but I believe a massive cohort of old people have been left on their own and are lonely. The concept of home help must be re-examined because mental health is as important as physical health. It can cost the State up to €3,000 per month to have an old person in a home. If one paid a home help worker €30 per hour, that would give the person 100 hours per month and 25 hours per week of home help. Many old people do not want to be in old folks' homes. They want to be at home and independent, but they need some home help. They might need it just for company or to do shopping and the like.

I would like the Minister of State with responsibility for old people to come to the Chamber so we can have a debate focused on our elders. Traditionally, old people were treated as the most revered and wisest people, but we are not doing that as a society. I feel very strongly about this. The run-up to Christmas has been a very difficult time for old people as well because they have been confined to their houses and are not allowed to move around. When the State provides a house for an elderly person because the person is on a State pension, the owner of the house gets a long-term lease and is paid for 20 years. That money is guaranteed for that property owner, regardless of what he or she does to the house. It is not good enough that old people in their 80s are ringing me to tell me their houses are freezing and nobody is doing anything about it. The local authorities say it is not their fault, but the owner's fault. We must refocus and talk about old people more frequently in the Chamber.