The last 12 months have been a period of increasing uncertainty for older people in Ireland, particularly for those with the least resources of their own, Age Action has said. Deborah Condon (www.irishhealth.com) reports:

According to the charity, which promotes better policies and services for older people, the last year has been a time of ‘gloom and doom', especially for vulnerable older people.

"The growing pace of cuts in basic services, such as home help, dental care, community support schemes and even the implied threat to the State pension, has caused great hardship for those who currently depend on them and great anxiety among many others who are fearful about their own future," said Age Action chief executive, Robin Webster, at the charity's annual meeting in Dublin.

The meeting was told that Age Action had worked particularly hard last year to highlight the issues of poverty and elder abuse. The charity is conducting research and developing policies on both these issues on a cross border and international basis.

‘building an equal and just society for people of all ages'

This year, the charity is focusing on ‘building an equal and just society for people of all ages', with a clear priority of protecting those who are most vulnerable and most at risk in the present economic crisis.

"Age Action will focus on protecting the State pension as the main bulwark against poverty in later life, tackling ageism and eliminating elder abuse. What we want is for this and future governments to adopt a positive and ambitious approach to our ageing society that will ensure a good quality of life for present and future generations," Mr Webster said.

He noted that the annual report presented to the meeting highlighted the fact that more than 25,000 older people across Ireland had benefited directly from at least one of the services provided by Age Action last year.

Impact of cuts

Also speaking at the annual meeting, Age Action co-chair, Claire Murphy, said that 2009 was one of the toughest years in the charity's 18 year history, with the economic downturn affecting it in a number of ways.

Cuts in Government spending resulted in reduced grant aid from statutory bodies such as the HSE, while rising unemployment and the economic downturn also resulted in fewer donations to Age Action's charity shops and a poorer response to fundraising initiatives.

"These financial pressures made it necessary for the Board to take some very painful measures to reduce expenditure, not only by reducing some programmes, but also having to reduce staff numbers, for the first time in the history of Age Action," Ms Murphy explained.

However despite this, the charity has ‘refused to stand still'.

"We have redoubled our fundraising efforts to convince the public that we are a charity - a fact that not everyone is aware of - and a charity that is well worth supporting," she said.

Meanwhile in a wide-ranging debate on current concerns facing older people, issues raised included threats to the State pension, the loss of automatic entitlement to the Over-70s medical card, inadequate State support for carers and the withdrawal of the Christmas bonus.

The annual meeting took place in Croke Park.

For more information on Age Action, click here