Gerry Galvin, a senior citizen, like many others was hit by the Government's attempt to withdraw the medical card for the over-70s. He explains why the move was such a breach of trust
I AM a recent recipient of the senior citizens' Free Travel Pass, bestowed as a right upon every citizen at the age of 66. Everyone in their early 60s, except the helicoptered super rich, one assumes, is aware of this impending right, which, along with the pension, is this State's official recognition of entry into older age.
Not quite a ministerial Mercedes but a valuable perk, nonetheless. Pleasures deferred are the most satisfying of all; as long as, it should be said, expectation is not shattered arbitrarily, without consultation, which the over-70s experienced lately.
Although fully attuned to the free travel guarantee, I was not prepared for the impact of this long-established consideration. In one benevolent stroke my casual cynicism was pierced along with the thin skin of contempt for bureaucracy I had cultivated assiduously for years.
Rage at institutional arrogance and rampant inequality dissipated. I had reason to be grateful and I knew it. When the red and white printed travel pass, neatly enveloped in its plastic pouch, arrived in the post, I was struck dumb.
A lump in the throat, almost tears. Permission to travel back in time. It was as if my father had taken me aside, ushered me into the sitting room of my childhood, sat me down to say: "I'm proud of you son, you've done well, you deserve this."
For days it stayed with me, this feeling of wellbeing and in the repetitious, compulsive manner of an ageing brain I kept taking the pass out of my wallet to verify the reality. Conferred status does the heart good.
A week later I tripped along the platform at the station in Galway, hopping on to the Dublin train like a teenager let loose for the first time. There was the added frisson of self-importance on the Luas when the ticket inspector seemed almost to bow in approbation of my official venerability.
All my life I have resisted the exclusivity of committees and inner circles. From the outside looking in, I believed the view to be truer, less complicated, more reliable. And here I am enthusiastically, dare I say, proudly, a card-carrying member of the Free Travel Club!
My kind of club with all the benefits of an elite without responsibility. If there is no agenda, there are no minutes or meetings.
Nevertheless I am struck by an ambient distinctiveness on the bus and train these days. Something new, a grey, contented fellow feeling in the air. People of a certain age have an unspoken stake in each other.
We don't have to make a fuss of familiarity to know who we are.
Therein lies the true awfulness of the recent medical card debacle. In one thoughtless swipe, a bond of goodwill towards the elderly was obliterated, undermining their trust in Government and, more importantly, the reassurance of comforts in common to mitigate the fears of failing minds and bodies in dwindling years. Embittered older age is not a legacy any society can be proud of.
In promoting the health and happiness of senior citizens, governments need to jettison the language of cuts and severance in preference for the encouragement of free passage to whatever destination they are bound.