Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 February 2010
4 Deputy Dinny McGinley asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the commitment to the community supports for older people scheme in 2010; his views on whether older persons are not being adequately supported to live independently; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8287/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has funded and operated the scheme of community support for older people since mid-2002. Grant aid provided under this scheme allows for the installation of socially monitored personal alert systems and other items of home security and has supported more than 100,000 older people in recent years. This scheme was reintroduced last October after being suspended for a period while my Department carried out a review of its operation. That review is now complete and I hope to be in a position to publish the report before the end of this month, once I have received the input of other relevant Departments and organisations working with older people.
My Department is also at an advanced stage in finalising arrangements for the implementation of several innovations to the scheme to address matters raised in the review. The revised scheme will seek to streamline its operation in order to make it easier for community groups to access grant support and to broaden coverage to ensure older people who are unable to provide this equipment from their own resources have access to grant aid.
Even with the suspension of the scheme in 2009, 432 community groups received total funds of more than €2.1 million in 2009 with 6,523 older persons being provided with security equipment. The vast majority of these received grant support for the installation of socially monitored alert systems. I have made arrangements to keep the existing scheme open and my Department is accepting applications for grant support. The arrangement will continue until such time as revised arrangements are in place. Information on the grants paid is updated monthly on my Department's website at www.pobail.ie.
On a broader front, Government policy is to support older people to live in dignity and independence in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. To underpin this commitment, the Government has created the Office for Older People to support the Minster of State with responsibility for older people and health promotion to bring a more co-ordinated approach to issues relating to older people across the range of Departments and agencies. In particular, the Minister of State is developing a new national positive ageing strategy in respect of which my Department is having an input.
Responsibility for ensuring that older people can live independently and securely in their own homes, through the delivery of the necessary services, is spread across several Departments and State agencies, including the Garda Síochána and the Health Service Executive, as well as the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. With respect to my own Department, our focus is on assisting older people through ensuring community organisations and volunteering are supported in order to address gaps in service delivery, where this is best done via local responses, and to ensure older people are included in local activities and community life.
I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive report, but it does not answer the original question I submitted for priority, on another issue to do with elderly people. The Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, has commented widely in the media in recent days and weeks on this issue, which affects elderly people living alone. It is inexplicable that I am unable to pursue it with the Minister in the Dáil when he has replied to questions on this issue ag deireadh aifrinn an Domhnaigh ar Raidió na Gaeltachta. I have tried twice to receive answers, by submitting a question to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and to the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív. Both were ruled out of order.
There is nothing that can be done if the question was ruled out of order. The Deputy cannot raise the issue that has been ruled out of order in the guise of a supplementary question.
I know many elderly people living in their homes who dress on Sunday mornings to listen to mass on Raidió na Gaeltachta.
I have given the Deputy latitude.
They dress up to listen to that mass.
The Deputy must find another way to raise the matter, whether by means of an Adjournment debate or otherwise. He cannot address it now.
Like the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I have been here a long time and am simply trying to do my best to find another way of raising this issue.
I am suggesting a very useful way for the Deputy to raise it.
I will be absolutely delighted to hear it.
I am suggesting that he submit a request to raise the matter on the Adjournment.
This is an issue that affects elderly people throughout the State.
Does the Deputy have a supplementary question in respect of the question that was responded to by the Minister of State?
Yes. I welcome the reintroduction of the community supports for older people scheme, which is needed now more than ever. This would be a terrible time to reduce funding for the scheme given that the CSO has indicated a 51% increase in the number of aggravated burglaries involving people in their homes. Will funding be made available in the current year to cater for all the applications that have been submitted for assistance under the scheme? Can the Minister of State give any indication at this stage of the extent of such funding?
I will try to be helpful as possible to the Deputy.
In respect of his relevant questions.
I am sure it is all relevant to the Deputy. In regard to the question ruled out of order, the Minister advises me that if the Deputy has a word with him quietly at the end of Question Time, he will advise him on how to put down a question on that issue that might be in order.
There you are, Deputy McGinley.
I appreciate that, but I assure the Minister of State I was very careful in formulating the question, with assistance from my colleagues. However, it was rejected by the Office of the Ceann Comhairle.
I would be obliged if the Minister of State would answer the question that is properly before us.
As I said, we provided funding for more than 6,500 individuals last year under the community supports for older people scheme. We expect a greater number to apply this year and a new scheme will be implemented shortly. One of my main concerns in regard to the scheme is that there are rural areas which are not adequately covered under it. In other words, we must actively promote the scheme in those areas and seek appropriate groups to administer it. The scheme is based not on the individual but on community groups. We must strengthen that connection between the activity of the community group and the engagement with the older person.
Deputy McGinley asked about the level of funding. I anticipate that this year's allocation will be in the region of €3 million. As I said, some 100,000 people have availed of the scheme, with more than 70,000 monitored alarms being provided. A concerted effort must be introduced in regard to recycling. Thousands of units are in the ownership of community groups, although they are in the possession of individual households, and we must work with those groups to promote recycling.
I understand a review has been carried out into the effectiveness of the scheme. When can we expect that report to be published?
Before the end of the month.
Question No. 5 answered with Question No. 2.
