Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming today and thank the Fine Gael Senators for bringing forward this motion. We are talking about older people and sometimes we do so as though they are a homogenous group. However, I am sure we all know lots of older people who are living their best lives, hiking and skydiving. We need to think about them as individuals and the different supports we want, beyond thinking about older people as being helpless.

I broadly support today's motion, but there are some vital considerations we need to discuss when we talk about enhancing care provision. Unpaid carers make up some 6% of the population and we still have a means test for carer's allowance. I recognise there has been a commitment to remove it within the term of this Government, but we need to see a commitment to do so this year. It is putting a huge amount of financial strain on families and it is punitive. I am sure everyone spoke to carers who are struggling on the doors during the recent general election campaign. This would be a quick way of putting human rights back into the care space.

More than 1 million people in Ireland report having a disability. This group is at significantly greater risk of experiencing poverty, social exclusion and unemployment and facing a whole range of different barriers around transport, housing and education. The fact is that disabled people, including older people, are fighting for basic supports they should be entitled to and that should be a human right. That is not okay in 2025. It was never okay, but the fact is we are still seeing people fight for basics. That needs to change. Like ending homelessness, which was not seen in the programme for Government, older people are similarly unseen in it, which is a great disappointment for many of us. There is no specific reference to older people throughout the comprehensive section on building a healthier future, which is an omission, given today's motion.

The Social Democrats have advocated for such measures as a commissioner for ageing and older populations who would ensure oversight and advocacy, which is also missing from the programme of Government, and a senior Minister for disability. To create financial stability for older people, we would also like to see a linking of the State pension to at least 34% of the average wage to ensure financial security for people who are no longer working. We are deeply concerned about the continuing privatisation of services and care for older people and would like to see a public system.

I will speak about the point Senator Costello - she is not in the Chamber - made on the challenges of the digitalisation we keep seeing. The digital-only provision of public services is discriminatory. While that is how many of us work and live our lives, many people in our lives, such as my mother, are blocked from accessing many things in the digital space.

While I support elements of the motion, we can go further. We need to focus on structural change and delivery of these things.