Sarah Harte: Our ageing voters deserve dignity and respect

Polling suggests that age was a major factor in this election. Nearly one in three voters in this election were aged 60 or older, and broadly speaking they returned Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, although you sense some of them did it while gritting their teeth because of a sense of
global instability. 

And you know what? Maybe old dogs are more insecure than you think.

In their 70s, 80s, and sometimes even 90s, they live in a blatantly ageist society. 

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If you are interested in a snapshot of the lives of older people, look no further than the CSO, which has a dedicated older persons information hub. 

People aged 65 and over rose by 40% between 2013 and 2023. That number is expected to double again by 2051 to 1.6m. 

The economics of this are mind-blowing, with significant implications for our long-term public finances.

As Mick Clifford pointed out in the Irish Examiner on Saturday, the new government needs to do more to examine how the increasing number of people facing retirement who are renting will survive on state pensions. 

According to the latest census figures, there has been a decline in homeownership among older people aged 65 or more, with a recent parliamentary budget office report showing that in 31,500 households, the main applicant for social housing was aged 50 and over.

This week, I heard an upsetting story about an older man in Louth who has worked all his life, but his marriage broke down. 

He had been living in rented accommodation when the landlord sold the house. 

Now, he lives in his car.

CSO stats show that almost one-quarter of those in the oldest age group surveyed, aged 55 to 69, have no supplementary pension cover. 

Age Action stats reveal that nearly a third of older people rely on social welfare for 90% of their income.

Housing policy is long broken, and there is no reason to think that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael plan to change the status quo. 

Our infrastructure is creaking, and our population is expanding fast. 

Is it crazy to imagine that the tension between older and younger people might increase with a reshaping of the notion of where societal responsibility lies for its elder lemon citizenry?

One issue that caught my eye as we went to the polls last Friday was the first step our neighbours took to legalise assisted dying in Britain. 

It’s particularly relevant to us as the Dáil voted in October to note the final report of the joint Oireachtas committee on assisted dying. 

Our new government will have to decide whether it wants to bring legislation to the Oireachtas because we don’t need a referendum to decide on the issue.

This complicated ethical human rights issue presents moral dilemmas to grapple with. 

Detractors of the British bill say that it was a very black Friday for the vulnerable, including the elderly, the terminally ill, the disabled, and the poorest, who have the most to fear from this sort of legislation.

Is it alarmist to fear that euthanasia could become an expectation aimed at specific groups in society, including old people? 

Or that in a country where the pressure on housing and state resources is set to become extreme, a kind of ‘we need your house, Granny, and you’ve had good innings’ thinking could creep in? 

We know that older people are more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, including from family members.

Attending a conference yesterday on domestic abuse, the issue of coercive control, particularly financial abuse of older people by adult children and carers, was raised. There is a growing awareness of this problem.

The pandemic highlighted how weak the protection of older people’s rights is. Thousands of old people, not just in Ireland, died avoidable deaths in nursing homes. We knew who wouldn’t be getting them if it came down to a fight for ventilators.

Micheál Martin, who might be our next taoiseach, has spoken about assisted dying and his fears of “an indirect pressure on older people… coming to the end of their lives.” 

I agree that this type of legislation might encourage older people to think that they have the societal obligation to die to free up services and space.

Supporters of the assisted dying bill in Britain point to safeguards.

However, when a measure is introduced on a narrow basis, it is always liberalised, and there is every chance that the legal definition of who is entitled to end their life will be extended.

For example, abortion was introduced in Ireland on the basis there would be a three-day waiting period after a doctor certified a woman was entitled to an abortion. 

No sooner was the measure passed when the call came for that waiting period to be abolished. 

This has nothing to do with my personal view on abortion or the waiting period. These are facts.

In Canada, in 2016, they introduced medical assistance for dying. 

Now, they are fighting about extending it to people with mental illness, which is sinister and shows how thinking about whose life is valuable can swiftly shift.

This brings us to the issue of palliative care, a concern given the ageing population. 

In September, former minister for health Stephen Donnelly, who just lost his seat, launched a new palliative care strategy. 

The report was welcomed as a positive development by leading actors in the palliative care sector, but it also highlighted regional inequities regarding access to care. Public monies should be funnelled into high-quality palliative care to reduce pain and suffering at the very end of life and to increase dignity for all.

When it comes to safeguarding older people’s dignity, autonomy, and self-determination, we need to break away from tired stereotypes. 

For example, there’s been a trend of discussing the economic burden that older people place on younger people, but this is reductive nonsense.

Over half a million of over 18-year-olds live with their parents because of deficient housing policies pursued over decades by government, whereby we consistently spend less than the European average of our national income in housing and permit institutional investors to own a disproportionate amount of residential property assets.

Somehow, older people are viewed as dependents rather than robust rights holders. 

This is despite the fact they have been net contributors to the idea of the State, their communities, and families keeping this country afloat in hard times with a sense of national pride and a vision for a better Ireland.

We should never underestimate that legacy.