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Task Force gets £8m to cover services for the elderly

By: Michael O'Kelly
The Irish Examiner, June 2, 2000

Elderly people living alone in poor housing can now ask their local health boards to install a proper heating system, Housing Minister Bobby Molloy has announced.

Minister Molloy has allocated £8m to the Task Force for the elderly to cover the latest extension of services provided to old people. The scheme, which provides necessary basic repairs and improvements to the houses of elderly people living alone. This is operated by the health boards in conjunction with FAS.

“I am acutely aware that, in the past, finances for the scheme had to be spread very thinly and that, in most cases, only very basic repair works could be carried out.

“When I took office the allocation for the Task Force was a little over £4m and that meant heating systems could only be installed in a small minority of cases,” Deputy Molloy said.

The move has been widely welcomed since the greying of Ireland is set to escalate rapidly, as the number of people aged 65 or more doubles over the next 30 years. The scale of the problem is illustrated by the fact that there will be a significant increase in numbers by the year 2006. 

In 1996 there were 413,291 people who were aged 65 or over. This is predicted to rise to 449,900 by 2006. The expected increase in numbers means care of the elderly is likely to become a much more political issue than at present. Currently there are just 400 private nursing homes in the country providing beds for old people. Distribution is uneven with an oversupply in some areas and a shortage in others and although beds are also provided by the public sector, financial cutbacks have made serious inroads into their numbers.

Most health care planners work on the basis that there will be a continuing requirement for 5 % of those aged 65 and over, to be accommodated in long term care, but increasingly the norm of 10% of those aged 75 plus is being used.

An increase in numbers is also likely to mean an increase in the cost of providing care. At present it costs on average about £350 a week in a private nursing home, though this amounts varies from region to region and in the Dublin area the figure could be double that amount. However, it is estimated that the average cost in the State sector is £400 per person.
The allocation of £8m to the task force is a record, Deputy Molloy said yesterday, and proves the government is serious about helping the elderly and ensuring our that senior citizens are not neglected when it comes to sharing out the Celtic Tiger’s spoils.