Charities for elderly risk becoming ‘overwhelmed’ as Ireland faces ageing population

Charity workers have warned that NGOs supporting older people could become “overwhelmed” in the future as Ireland faces up to the challenges caused by an ageing population. Seán Moynihan, chief executive of Alone, a charity that provides services for older people, has cautioned that there is a “huge problem coming for the housing needs of older people”.

According to Gráinne Loughran, senior policy and advocacy office at Alone, Ireland’s population is ageing at the fastest rate of any country in Europe. “We’re at the beginning of the curve. The curve is from 1 million people over 60 today to over 1.6 million in the years to come, a relatively short period of time as well.

“It takes so long for capital investment, changes of policy, changes to structure in how we do things. It’s not going to happen overnight. We don’t want to wake up in five years’ time and realise we’re actually 10 years behind where we need to be.

“We see the issues already when we see 6,400 older people on the waiting list for home care, older people waiting on trolleys for upwards of 24 hours in A&E, we see an increase in the number of older people experiencing homelessness. We’re not equipped to deal with it now, we’ll be less equipped to deal with it 10 years from now.”

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Speaking at the launch of Alone’s pre-budget 2024 submission on Thursday, Ms Loughran called on the Government to use some of the anticipated budget surplus to meet the recommendations put forward by Alone.

[ Emergency hubs may be needed for elderly if housing crisis persists, charity warns ]

“We would really like to see that some of that investment is used for capital structures and services that we’re crying out for,” she says. “We’ve been talking about these services for a long time now, they’re not new. They should be on various desks in various departments.”

Among the budget recommendations made by Alone to Government is an increase in the State pension by a minimum of €27.50 this year. Alone has also called for the Telephone Allowance to be increased from €2.50 to €10 a week, an increase in the fuel allowance of €35 and an increase in the living alone allowance from €22 to €32 per week.

Alone has also recommended a funding increase in housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability by at least €85 million, an extra €10 million in measures to combat energy poverty, and extra resources and personnel at a cost of €5 million for the action plan to combat loneliness.

According to Mr Moynihan, Ireland is “the loneliest country in Europe”. Research carried out by Alone found 70.3 per cent of older people report feeling lonely, while 26 per cent of people aged 65 and over live by themselves.

Additionally, Alone reported a 128 per cent increase in the number of people it supported encountering financial difficulties during 2022, while the number of people the charity supported with housing issues increased by 147 per cent in the same year.

During the event to announce Alone’s budget recommendations, two elderly people used the platform to raise issues with services provided to them by Alone. In response, Mr Moynihan suggested that these issues demonstrated capacity problems in the charitable sector, saying “we’re not perfect”.

“We and all other NGOs will become overwhelmed. People talk about grey votes, but our sector isn’t strong enough and isn’t listened to.”