GROUPS REPRESENTING the elderly say there is a rising groundswell of anger against the Government over its decision to suspend a scheme which gave grants to improve security measures in older people’s homes.
The Community Support for Older People scheme was suspended on Budget day last Tuesday but Age Action Ireland said the news was only filtering through to older people now.
Its spokesman Eamon Timmins said he didn’t believe it was a malicious decision by the Government but it was an “incredible” decision, given that the scheme helped thousands of older people while only costing around €4 million per year.
The scheme provides grant aid for the installation of items such as window locks, door locks and chains, smoke alarms and socially-monitored alarm systems. Community and voluntary groups run the scheme at local level. The scheme paid out €4.3 million in grants to groups last year, and €638,000 in the early months of this year.
Phyl Lee, secretary of the Clontarf Active Retirement Association said her group recently held a meeting to explain the scheme to people and more than 50 had just applied for the security measures.
She said most people were interested in the socially-monitored alarm systems, or panic alarms, as they lived alone and the alarm would allow them to look for help if they fell or became incapacitated.
When she ran out of forms and sought more last Wednesday, she was told that the scheme was suspended. “I think it’s a disgrace,” Ms Lee said. “I’m telling you, the Government has let down older people terribly again. We built this country up and now they are robbing us left right and centre.”
The Clontarf group is holding a conference later this month and she said the suspension of the scheme would probably be top of the agenda, unless the Government rowed back on its decision.
The Dublin group Friends of the Elderly said many older women living alone in the city would be affected by the suspension of the scheme but it was also a nationwide problem.
“There’s a lot of unrest and worry out there,” said spokesman Dermot Kirwan. “The scheme is a cost-effective preventative measure that pays for itself when you consider the true cost of a break-in to an elderly person.”
He said burglaries would increase as the recession deepened but the more secure a home was, the less likely it was to be robbed.
“The scheme also provides employment at local level and stengthens community ties. It cost €4.3 million to run last year – that’s half the amount that TDs claimed in unvouched expenses,” Mr Kirwan said.
Both Age Action Ireland and Friends of the Elderly have called for the immediate restoration of the funding and the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament said it was “dismayed” by the decision.
