‘Grey Vote’ could dictate shape of the next government, says Age Action

THE ‘Grey Vote’ could dictate the shape of the next government, Age Action said yesterday.

With almost one-in-five of the electorate aged over 65, the older people’s charity, which is urging a huge turn-out of older voters, has produced a canvasser’s question card so that older people’s issues are raised on the doorsteps.

The card highlights some of the key issues for older people such as pensions, community-based health services and the restoration of the automatic entitlement to the over-70s medical card.

Age Action has been lobbying the political parties in recent weeks to ensure they understand the priorities for older people and begin planning for the changing needs of the country’s ageing population.

Spokesperson Eamon Timmins said the next Government must adopt a twin-track approach of maintaining the state pension as a key element in protecting older people from poverty, while also encouraging people to make private provision for their retirement income.

“The state pension should at least keep them above the poverty line and remain at least at 35% of the gross average industrial income.”

Age Action chief executive, Robin Webster, said that while 11% of the population was over the age of 65, they represented 17% of the electorate.

“This makes them a potent voting force, especially when you consider that, traditionally, older voters are most likely to cast their vote.”

Age Action member, Beth Nunan, a widow living alone in Dublin but originally from Nohoval in Co Cork, said the last time she had to go to a hospital’s emergency department, she could not give the name of her next of kin because her family had emigrated to find work during the previous recession in 1980s.

“Here we are again with the young people having to emigrate because they have no jobs. When you are old and have gone through life you see more than one recession but this one is totally different. It is made by the incompetence of government and that we resent very deeply.”

Another Age Action member, Paddy McKenna, from Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, said he was concerned that some doctors had started charging medical card holders for blood tests. “This is something that is creeping in the back door and now is the time to stop it,” he said.

“The Department of Health makes the regulations, not GPs.”