THE ELDERLY:THE AGE Action charity has said it received calls from elderly people unable to leave their homes for weeks because of icy conditions.
The charity urged people to continue to look out for older neighbours and relatives unable to leave their homes due to the recent cold weather. “With the sub-zero temperatures forecast . . . older people who are housebound by the weather and who have not been receiving regular visits over the holiday period may be in difficulty when it comes to supplies of food, fuel and medicine,” the group’s spokesman Eamon Timmins said yesterday.
“We are urging people to call in to their older neighbours . . . You cannot presume that another neighbour will do this – they could be expecting you to do it.
“Regardless of what preparations older people had made for the unusual winter cold snap, nobody would have adequate food and medical supplies to enable them get through the period of weather we are currently experiencing.
“Unless their friends, neighbours and relatives contact them, some older people could find themselves in real difficulty.”
Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune said she had written to Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin calling for emergency fuel allowance payments to be considered. “The bad weather over the last few weeks has been particularly difficult for many vulnerable people, especially older people, some of whom have become prisoners in their own homes. Many people on low incomes who currently face financial difficulty, as a result of the loss of the Christmas bonus or reduced social welfare payments . . . are not heating their homes despite the cold weather in an attempt to save money.
She said a “clear statement” from the Minister on emergency fuel payments would allow those facing difficulties to spend more on heating their homes now.
Ms Clune noted that the Institute for Public Health’s annual report on fuel poverty last month called fuel poverty a “major concern” and believed the Republic had a fuel poverty rate approaching 10 per cent in 2007 before the recession.
Meanwhile, Irish Rural Link said that it had received a lot of reports of older people “marooned” in their homes.
Moreover, the non-profit organisation also appealed to people to visit neighbours they believe might be isolated by the bad weather.
