Sir, – The appointment of Ms Justice Mary Laffoy of the Supreme Court to chair the citizens’ assembly is welcome. However, your headline (July 27th) and, in fairness, the headlines used in many other media, give the impression that the citizens’ assembly is solely about the issue of abortion. Later in your article you do indicate that “Ireland’s ageing population, fixed-term parliaments and the manner in which referendums are held are also to be examined”.
Support & Advocacy Service for Older People (Sage) welcomes the establishment of the citizens’ assembly in line with the programme for government which states it will include “a discussion on the future needs of, and the possibilities and opportunities for our ageing population”.
One of the key issues facing a section of older people is that of receiving adequate support and care to enable them to live in their own homes for as long as possible and to die there if that is their wish.
This was the main focus of the discussions at the forum on long-term care for older people held in June and the report of that forum, which will be available at the end of the month, raises a simple question which we would like to have debated at the citizens’ assembly: “Why, despite decades of policy reports and recommendations to government, is there still a systemic bias towards care in congregated settings and no formal legislative basis for support and care in the community?”
– Yours, etc,
MERVYN TAYLOR.
Support & Advocacy
Service for Older People,
Dublin 7.