Elderly urged by ESB to use free allowances
"Keeping warm is the best protection against winter illness, so I would urge customers to contact their social welfare office or our ESB offices and shops to ensure you are making use of your full entitlement," he said.
As part of the campaign Mr Campion said the ESB was issuing 50,000 room temperature cards so older people could check if the rooms they live in were sufficiently warm.
He also advised people who might have trouble paying their electricity bills to bring it to the ESB's attention so new arrangements could be worked out.
Junior Health Minister Ivor Callely urged neighbours to keep a watchful eye on older people in their community during the winter months, pointing out that more than 262,000 older people live alone.
The growth of older people as a proportion of the population presented both challenges and opportunities.
"As we age we must be enabled to live with dignity in our own community for as long as possible," said the minister. "The challenge is to provide services for older people when and where these services are needed."
Urging neighbours to be aware of older people in their community in the coming months, the minister said: "This campaign offers all of us the opportunity to take stock of how we interact with our neighbours and, perhaps, identify a neighbour who we may befriend this winter."
Reach Out chairman Pat Lane recalled the campaign's launch in 1992 following a public outcry when a Dublin man was found dead in his Crumlin house.
He had been dead for four years but his disappearance had gone unnoticed by neighbours and health board and local authority services.
Mr Lane said the campaign an umbrella body of statutory, voluntary and community agencies had helped change attitudes and policies affecting the lives of older people.
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