Stand by your nan!

The sight of senior citizens protesting outside the gates of the Dáil yesterday was a stark warning to the Coalition that age is no barrier to active anger and that, once riled, older people have a strident and far-reaching voice.

Up to 12,000 mostly older people descended on Leinster House to mount a noisy demonstration against multi-million-euro government cuts targeting the elderly.

Senior citizens are to protest outside the Dáil today against cuts in the Budget.

Brendan Howlin, the public expenditure minister, has put himself on a collision course with the HSE, warning it must sign up to his cost cutting plan laid down in last week’s budget.

Plans for massive cuts to the medical card scheme have descended into farce after the health minister cast doubt over the target figure outlined in the budget and the HSE said it will have to be independently verified.

A rallying call has gone out to elderly advocacy groups to gather the troops and start making banners for a massive protest in Dublin next week over budget cuts against elderly people.

Savings in services and schemes for the elderly announced in the budget will see cuts to medical as well as household package supports.

OLDER people are being urged to demand better healthcare from politicians knocking on their doors in the run-up to the general election.

Older people are being urged to demand better healthcare from politicians knocking on their doors in the run-up to the general election.

The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament has welcomed the maintenance of the State Pension as well as the extra €40 in the fuel allowance.

A senior citizens' lobby group, Older & Bolder, is concerned about the impact of many of the measures proposed in the Government’s four-year plan on citizens on lower and fixed incomes.

The 'Older & Bolder' campaign has said that a cut to the state pension would be "an assault on vulnerable older people".

IRELAND’S elderly population needs to fight plans to extend the retirement age unless concerns over ageism and training for older people in the workplace are addressed, according to a new report.

Pensioners will see an annual fall in their income of €600 as a result of Budget 2010, CEO of the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament Máiréad Hayes said this evening.

Elderly people on the State pension are heating just one room of their homes and avoiding buying new clothes to save cash, new research reveals.

THE HSE has denied it is forcing future public nursing home residents to pay almost 20 times more for their care than those in the system, after a leading lobby group said any possibility of the move was “unjustifiable”.

PADDY BARRY, the 82-year-old grandfather of magician Keith Barry, died almost a week after he was found unconscious following a break-in at his Waterford home.

SOCIAL welfare recipients will not get a Christmas bonus payment this year while jobseekers under the age of 20 will have their welfare allowance halved to €100 a week.

SENIOR citizens last night called again on the Government to reverse its decision to remove the medical card from about 20,000 older people.

Thousands of pensioners are expected to take to the streets of Dublin today to protest over new Budget reforms to means test the over-70s for a medical card.

The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament has hit out at the decision by the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, to abolish the entitlement to a medical card for people over 70.

IRELAND’S old-age pensioners may have thought their courting days were over but the Government yesterday began efforts to woo them in advance of the General Election.

Special Olympics supremo Mary Davis is to head a new national citizenship task force to urge people to get involved in voluntary work in their communities.

THERE will be no new cash spent this year on relieving the pressure on hospitals' accident and emergency departments, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney told the Dáil yesterday.

OLDER people may have to work past 65 in the future due to the pensions time bomb, a conference was told yesterday.