I will not rehearse what has been said by previous speakers on older people, all of which we support. In preparing this paper we noted that this new Oireachtas committee came under the aegis of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and covered the areas of equality and discrimination. For this reason, we framed the paper in the context of the published report. However, yesterday, when I made the submission, I realised the committee addressed a much broader agenda. Perhaps, therefore, we will confine ourselves to identifying just a few of the recommendations in the report which we, as older people working on a purely voluntary basis who listen to other older people every day, would prioritise.
We are very conscious that we are speaking to a committee consisting of our legislators. For this reason, I will, first, turn to the legal framework within which the anti-discrimination legislation operates. Given that we are now at the stage of drafting a new treaty, it is important to note the current position on older people in the context of the European Union. In 1993 the attention of the association was first drawn to the fact that policies for older people had no basis in law in the Treaty of Rome. In the run-up to the Maastricht treaty we joined other non-governmental agencies in Europe in lobbying for some provision to be made. During the Irish Presidency we succeeded in having age included as a category in the section dealing with discrimination for which the Government should take credit. However, the provision was only aspirational and had no direct effects.
Our association strongly welcomed the enactment in domestic law of anti-discrimination provisions in the Employment Equality Act. We were aware, however, of the qualification that these provisions only related to people aged 65 years and under. The intention obviously was to address the difficulties being experienced in the paid workforce. We were also aware of the constitutional problem which arose with the second Employment Equality Act, with regard to the status of older people. We felt it was important to get the principle of equality onto the Statute Book and were assured we would be able to address the weaknesses we perceived in the current Act in amending legislation.
When the Equality Authority was established, at the invitation of the chief executive officer, the association prepared a position paper on the current status of older people. The report was presented to the board of directors and a decision was then taken to convene an advisory committee, composed of older people's organisations and the social partners, to assist in the preparation of a report on age discrimination. Each of the groups in attendance today was party to this committee. I represented our association and attended all meetings. We made oral and written submissions and circulated interim reports to the association's directors, which approved the final draft. This was the first occasion in the experience of our association at which an opportunity was provided at national level to participate in a forum, which provided a level playing field, was chaired by a skilful and independent chairperson and where parity of esteem characterised the process. We felt that this was a very positive development.
Understandably, Implementing Equality for Older People incorporates many of the recommendations made during the years by the National Council on Ageing and Older People and the programmes on positive attitudes designed by Age & Opportunity. While the contribution of the voluntary and community sector may be considerably weaker, it is important to bear in mind that volunteers tend to be gifted amateurs with very limited resources. Their contribution, however, represents the authentic voice of older people. They represent the voiceless to the best of their ability. That is an important issue for us as we are now involved in a number of the partnership models of policy formulation and conscious of the fact that there is a constituency that might be out of sight and out of mind.
Implementing Equality for Older People presents us with a national agenda to be addressed on behalf of all older people. The association is reassured to know that the National Economic and Social Forum has established a project team to examine the implementation issue arising from the report. Mr. Carrroll drew the committee's attention to this fact.
We have been working for over a decade with and for older people. We are at a stage where we have a national agenda to which we have all signed up. Each of our groups may be according a different priority to the recommendations, but we believe we are at a stage where we should be focusing on implementation. From the point of view of the participation of older people, we learn by doing. We have circulated a copy of our newsletter, Getting On, in which we set out our philosophy in regard to the role of older people. It also contains details of the work we do on a daily basis as volunteers. We devoted a great deal of time in that issue to the question of the equity release scheme about which we are receiving many queries. We usually address subjects in this way and publish the newsletter when we have the necessary resources.
We want to emphasise the fact that voluntary participation represents the authentic voice of older people. In the recommendations in the publication presented with the national agenda we were conscious of not trying to reinvent the wheel. We accord the highest priority to the health and community services area arising from the report's recommendations. I do not wish to rehash what was said by the representatives of the National Council for the Elderly, but it did all the research, which we supported. We are grateful to it for it and have used it in many papers.
The preferred choice of older people is to age in their own homes and within communities in which they are known and accepted. Some of the recommendations in this section have already been implemented under the health strategy, many of which merit dedicated funding and staff provision, as well as a role for the older person as a service user. It is of crucial importance to older people that we are moving from a supply and demand model of service provision to one that is person-centred and needs-driven.
We are working on a number of pilot schemes within the health boards such as the home first programme in operation in the Eastern Regional Health Authority, area No. 8. The purpose of the scheme is to bring people home from acute hospitals with a care management programme in place and a multi-disciplinary approach. This minimises the demand for institutional care by as much as a fortnight or three weeks. There is a co-ordinated plan within the health strategy between local authorities, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the health agencies. My colleague, Ms Emer Hally, is working on a pilot scheme in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area in order that we will not have replication of effort.
I wish to speak about the housing adaptation grants system currently in operation. We represent older people on the community platform, a section of the community and voluntary pillar. We prepared a paper on the operation of the grants system which supports older people by adapting houses to their needs in order that they can remain at home. We also accord priority to chapter 6, having regard to the projected population increase of active older people and, I hope, continuing high employment levels. The recommendations in this section should receive urgent attention. In a Reith radio lecture of two years ago it was suggested that the centre of gravity is altering in the demographic profile. Young people are staying in school longer, marrying later and will remain longer in the paid workforce.
Within the trade union movement in Britain there is concern that if the demand for labour increases, people will be compelled to remain in the workforce. Many believe they have earned the right to some bonus years and want to take their pension. The question of choice is very important. I am old enough to remember the time when an age limit order had to be brought forward in the public service because of the problem of young people requiring employment. The prejudice against older people, in terms of training and retraining and also in terms of promotional opportunities, is a cause of concern. There was the recent case of a 41 year old man in the public service who successfully took a case for discrimination on the basis of age. This is very worrying.
The third area of priority is chapter 7 which deals with the question of income for older people. Those dependent on social welfare payments as their main source of income have enjoyed substantial increases in real terms since 1998. However, these did not equal those in after-tax income from employment. This affected the relative position of older people because their standard of living did not rise as rapidly as those in employment. I do not wish to get involved in a discussion on relative and consistent poverty, but pension payments should be linked to the average industrial wage.
Although we did not address it much in Implementing Equality for Older People, there is an issue around those in receipt of personal occupational pensions in regard to the absence of an escalator clause and the kind of pension schemes being brought forward with fixed contributions but not fixed benefits. We need to deal with this. There is also concern about those relying on investment income because of the equity situation.
Research has proven that higher proportions of elderly people live in poverty in comparison with other age groups. Women aged over 65 years are the group most adversely affected. Women of my generation who exited from the workforce on marriage and are generally insured as dependants of their husbands are the worst affected. In the interests of equity, protecting elderly people from income poverty should be accorded a high priority.
In summation we accord priority to chapters 6, 7 and 8 of Implementing Equality for Older People, which we accept as the national agenda. I thank the committee for inviting me.