Sir, - Months have passed since RTE's Prime Time programme highlighted the lack of protection and security afforded to old people living in sheltered accommodation. The programme was prompted by the horrific murder of an elderly man living in St Bricin's sheltered accommodation.
This tragic death was preceded in recent years by separate incidents in which the bodies of three old people in sheltered accommodation went undiscovered for long periods after their deaths. Yet little has been done to give the elderly living in sheltered accommodation the services and protection they need and deserve.
St Helena's Voluntary Committee has been actively lobbying for an improved community warden service. In Dublin there are 2,500 senior citizens spread over 54 complexes, many of whom only receive one visit a week from their community warden and some none at all. We have also called for a review of the centralised alarm system in sheltered accommodation which does not make allowances for those who collapse in an area of their flat where the alarm is out of reach.
All we ask is that elderly people living in sheltered accommodation get what they are entitled to: a Christian share of the cake.
In an attempt to voice our concerns about the situation, St Helena's Voluntary Committee has made four attempts to have its correspondence included in Dublin Corporation's monthly meeting agenda through the medium of standing orders - a democratic right. The city manager has repeatedly refused to circulate these documents to the members of the City Council.
While we acknowledge that recent steps to install a caretaker a day-and-a-half per week in complexes is a step in the right direction, it is not enough. Do we have to wait until another tragedy happens before our message gets through? - Yours, etc., Billy Keegan,
Secretary,
St Helena's Senior Citizens Voluntary Committee,
Finglas South, Dublin 11.