Paying for care of the elderly

Madam, - We are an association of older people, whose core group of volunteers has been promoting the interests of older people…

Madam, - We are an association of older people, whose core group of volunteers has been promoting the interests of older people every day for over a decade. Experience has taught us that as we grow older our deepest wish is to retain our independence and, with the support of "needs-led and person-centred" health and social care, to live out life's journey in our own homes.

What we fear most is that we may become one of the estimated 5 per cent of the elderly population needing long-term or end-of-life care, the provision of which continues to be problematic.

Whether or not one agrees with the views recently expressed by the Tánaiste on the provision of and payment for the care of frail and vulnerable elderly people, Mary Harney has succeeded in initiating public debate about how we propose to finance care and raising awareness of the need to plan for future services.

The appropriate forum for building consensus on issues with political and budgetary implications such as this is the National Social Partnership on which older people are now represented by the chief executive officers of the Senior Citizens Parliament and Age Action, Messrs Michael O'Halloran and Robin Webster. They are supported by the relatively well organised network of older person's organisations and assisted by the extensive research of Prof Eamonn O'Shea, now complemented by the Mercer Report.

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Rather than complaining to the media, people should direct new energies towards identifying an equitable system for financing care and persuading the social partners of its merits. Input from the wider community, including politicians, should be welcomed.

For the generation which bore the burden of the highest dependency rates ever recorded and contributed substantially to our current economic success, society has a duty to seek an "equitable, efficient and affordable system" of financing care.

Relative to other European Union member- state, the task for us is not too difficult; but, to quote the recently expressed view of a distinguished commentator, "the cost of not acting now may ultimately prove prohibitive". - Yours, etc.,

SHEILA SIMMONS, Honorary Secretary and Director, Irish Association of Older People, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2.