There was much talk in 2001 of the great contribution made by the State's pensioners to our current wealth, writes Mary Raftery. Their reward, announced by Charlie McCreevy in the run-up to the general election, was to be granted free medical care for the rest of their lives.
In announcing that everyone over the age of 70 was to get a medical card, the then minister for finance stated that the government wished to recognise "the part played by the workers of yesterday in laying the foundation for so much of our current economic success".
Overnight elderly people were relieved of the enormous anxiety of how they would pay for full-time care, should they need it - or at least, so they were led to believe. It is only now that the true deception behind this hollow promise has been exposed.
Last week, the Oireachtas quietly passed a piece of legislation making it quite legal to charge medical cardholders for long-stay care. What was being vehemently denounced since December last as daylight robbery of a vulnerable group within society has now become transformed into an entirely legitimate and acceptable method of making them pay for that care. Never mind that the Government had promised them just three years ago that it would be free.
The piece of legislation redefining the meaning of a medical card in such a fundamental way is the Health (Amendment) Act, 2005, risen phoenix-like from the ashes of its close relative, the unconstitutional Health (Amendment) Act, 2004. The 2005 legislation has been purged of its repugnant sections on retrospection, but otherwise its provisions for charging medical cardholders for nursing home care are identical to those contained in the fallen 2004 Act.
Its passage into law has been almost stealthy, with a guillotine imposed on the Dáil debate. In the wake of the Travers report, attention in Leinster House was firmly focused on the battle to secure a head - principally that of Micheál Martin - as an Opposition trophy. Discussion on whether it was right or fair to charge elderly medical cardholders for nursing home care was confined to a few mutterings (from Government and Opposition TDs alike) that "everyone agrees" that people should pay for their own upkeep.
What the 2005 Act does is to allow the State levy a charge of up to a maximum of 80 per cent of the non-contributory old-age pension on anyone in a public nursing home bed. This charge is not based on that individual's ability to pay - it is entirely unrelated to his or her income.
For the many retired people with pensions related to their work, this level of payment would still leave them with well over half of their normal pension income intact, should they need long-stay care. However, for the least well-off, those surviving on only the non-contributory old-age pension of €166 a week, these nursing home charges are crippling.
This group will be left with what Minister for Health Mary Harney has most offensively described as "pocket money" of €35 a week. These proud builders of the Celtic Tiger have been reduced to a status akin to that of dependant children. The promise of being afforded the dignity of free medical care has crumbled in only three years to a derisory offer of "pocket money" from a State which boasted so recently about its gratitude to them.
It is worth pausing for a moment to contemplate the reality of life on €35 a week. A daily newspaper, a few phone calls, perhaps the odd drink or the barest minimum of toiletries would leave little or nothing for clothes or presents for children or grandchildren. Saving to ensure that there is enough to bury them, an important concern for many pensioners, will be out of reach. And if they have the misfortune to live in Cork or Kerry, where nursing home residents have been charged up to €1,000 a year for incontinence pads, they could be almost destitute.
The forcing of people into this kind of penury simply because they are in need of full-time care must qualify as one of the most savage acts of this Government. There is, of course, a provision in the Act for the Health Service Executive to reduce the nursing home charge in cases of "undue hardship". However, this is not defined, nor is there any mechanism specified on how one applies for such a reduction. Once again, forcing elderly people to beg for a little extra "pocket money" in this way is not just an affront to their dignity but should be equally offensive to the entire community.
As recently as last summer the Government was still busily congratulating itself, with then minister for health Micheál Martin declaring that giving medical cards to the over-70s made a statement about how we as a society treat our elderly.
What kind of a statement is made by a Government which has instead unfairly targeted the poorest of our elderly people, at a time when they need care, by slashing their already low income?