SECOND OPINION:Ireland has failed repeatedly to respond to ageing plan, writes DES O'NEILL
BETWEEN SHAMROCK Rovers breaking into the Europa League, our tension over the Irish soccer team prospects in Euro 2012, and our rugby team just embarked on the World Cup, it is clear that Ireland’s place in international league tables is very much flavour du jour.
So it is timely to reflect on an international ranking table where our presence is most notable for its stark absence. By the time you have finished this article, you will be prepared for your next table quiz when the quizmaster asks in what major United Nations project have Azerbaijan, Armenia, Romania, Liechtenstein and Moldova officially responded, and Ireland has not.
The answer, sadly, is in a repeated failure to respond to the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing almost a decade after its adoption by the UN in 2002. This is frustrating on two counts: the high quality of the plan and the many developments that have taken place in Ireland over the past decade.
The Madrid action plan is not some bland compendium of well-intentioned international diplomacy-speak, but rather a practical and realistic plan which recognises that the majority of older people in the world are now in low- and middle-income countries. It covers a wide range of issues, from income security through housing to health, and recognises the positive gains we have made from population ageing, but also the need to age-attune our society to make the best use of this gain for both older people and society.
The plan was carefully developed in tandem not only with national governments but also with the major international research society on ageing, the International Association of Gerontology. Through this avenue,
I was fortunate to be able to make inputs on transport, health and the research agenda for Irish researchers at a preparatory meeting in 2002.
And indeed, as the scientific meeting of the Irish Gerontological Society at the weekend in the Aviva Stadium showed us, there has been a remarkable flowering of interest in matters relating to older people in Ireland. Research presented from across the island showed an encouraging maturing of insight and dialogue across a range of issues: every university in the 32 counties now engages in research into ageing. The society’s journal, Irish Ageing Studies Review, equally reflects a very creditable activity for a small country.
There is also a wide range of practical projects being developed, such as the Age-Friendly Counties Programme. Progressive counties such as Louth, Kilkenny and Kildare have “seen the light” and are working to make often very simple changes to develop an infrastructure which meets a famous gerontology dictum that if you design for the old you include the young, but if you design for the young you exclude the old.
So our failure to respond officially to the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing is not due to a lack of intellectual firepower or activity on the ground. This casts an unhappy light on the silence on the proposed national Positive Ageing Strategy, presumably the point of reference from which an official response to the Madrid plan should arise.
Since the closing of public submissions two years ago, the Expert Advisory Group for Positive Ageing has still not been set up, and little is known publicly of the progress, if any, of what should be a vibrant national initiative. This seems shortsighted, as not only is there an important “longevity dividend” associated with ageing societies – calculated at £40 billion (€46 billion) a year in the UK – but age-attuning industry, from adapting to an older workforce to the development of new products for a changing demographic profile – is likely to be a highly advantageous industrial strategy.
Indeed, any national strategy on ageing must avoid being dominated by health and social care issues: important as they are, population ageing has relevance for every department in government, from transport through finance to industry and commerce.
So, with another European Year of Active Ageing heading our way in 2012, let’s hope that it might add urgency, transparency and wide engagement to produce not only a coherent and meaningful national strategy, but also see Ireland finally joining actively in the league that (whisper it!) matters more than events on soccer and rugby pitches – the future of us as we age.
Prof Des O’Neill is a consultant in geriatric and stroke medicine