A Chara, - I welcome the news that older people are likely to be able to travel on public transport without peak-time travel restrictions from next year.
This would bring substantial benefits to the lives of older people, ensuring that they can live socially active and independent lives for as long as possible while being based in their own home.
This is the wish of the vast majority of older people and Government policy since 1988 when the government of the day published The Years Ahead: A Policy for the Elderly, a document which remains the most significant national policy dedicated to the older population.
Since then, however, successive governments have remarkably overseen a dramatic growth in institutional rather than community-based care.
Almost half of the €1 billion spent annually on services for older people is spent on residential care, despite the fact that only 5 per cent of older people require such care.
In this context the extension of free public travel to cover all hours of service must be welcomed as a measure in addressing the imbalance of priorities in favour of institutional care. It must however occur in tandem with further Government measures to address the imbalance, such as increased spending on meals on wheels, day and respite care, community medical services and sheltered housing.
We need a new and updated Government strategy for our older population with a dedicated State agency to oversee the implementation of age-friendly policies. In the meantime, I as a public representative will do my utmost to keep the issue of services for older people high on the agenda. - Yours, etc,
Senator MARY WHITE, Seanad Éireann, Dublin 2.