OLDER PEOPLE need to mobilise to ensure the Government does not attempt to further undermine the entitlements of senior citizens, a conference of retired Siptu members heard yesterday.
Ross Connolly, secretary of Siptu's retired members' section and a grandson of James Connolly, said the outpouring of anger among older people during the medical card protests showed elderly people could not be ignored if they were properly organised.
He said there was immense power in the "grey vote" to influence politicians, but it needed to be properly organised.
"You can talk all you like, you can make all the precise arguments, you can make all the right submissions, but if you are not able to connect with people on the ground . . . then you will not make progress on the labour agenda," he said.
Mr Connolly said the Government had failed the people by seeking cutbacks in areas such as medical card cover for the elderly rather than taxing the rich.
"Why was there no increase in capital gains tax? Why were the super-rich bankers and financiers and property speculators - those mainly responsible for the economic mess of the country - once more . . . allowed to retain their golden parachutes?"
Delegates at the conference in Liberty Hall unanimously supported a motion condemning the Government's stance on the medical card issue and calling on Siptu's national executive to mobilise opposition against TDs who supported the move.
Retired member Tadgh Philpott said: "At the end of Brian Lenihan's Budget speech, there was a standing ovation from the Government and backbenchers. It was a complete and utter disgrace. I hope that at election time the entire trade union membership remembers that."
Other motions passed included opposition to the terms of the Government's "fair deal" scheme on financing nursing home care. Members said older people and their families would lose part of their homes to the Government, despite paying taxes all of their lives, by taking part in the scheme. They also said older people were being unfairly singled out as other categories of in-patients, such as medical card holders, would able to continue to access free hospital and home services.
Addressing the conference, Maireád Hayes of the Irish Senior Citizens' Parliament said: "It's important that people realise what is happening. The houses of everyone who avails of the scheme will be taken into consideration, but that message hasn't got through to people yet."
Mr Connolly said that while the fair deal scheme was better than the current situation, aspects of it were deeply unfair.
"There will be a rigid assessment system of a patient's need for intensive care before being accepted as eligible for the scheme.
"If they are not so assessed, the patient will have to go the ordinary private route and accept its costs," he said.
Another source of anger was a lack of momentum by the Government in bringing the pension up to €300 a week by annual increases of €15. This year's increase in the Budget was only €7.
