McAleese full of praise for communities’ elderly care

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese has hailed communities which look after their elderly residents as places which enrich people’s lives with spirit, hope and friendship.

Mrs McAleese was speaking after officially opening a housing scheme for elderly people in Ballymacarbery, Co Waterford, yesterday.

The €2.6 million scheme, named Cluain Cairbre, comprises 15 houses located adjacent to a new community centre in the village, which is one of the gateways to the spectacular scenery of the Nire Valley and Comeragh Mountains.

Mrs McAleese said. “We know the funding agencies are so important and that money comes from the community, from all the Irish people, but at the end of the day the funding agencies are only part of the story because where does this story start?

“It has to start here, it has to start here with local people deciding this is what we want, this is a priority for us, this is something we’re prepared to work for, to build on.”

Anyone driving through Ballymacarbery and seeing the new houses for the elderly would be impressed, she said.

“They’re going to look at those gorgeous homes and they’re going to say, ‘this is a community that cares about its elderly’.

“It wants to make sure they’re not going to be isolated, it wants to make sure it has a unique place where they can be cared for and make a contribution and make new friends and feel happy and safe and secure. This is a place where the elderly are revered.”

She said Cluain Cairbre was an example of how money can be properly invested for the future.

“We hear an awful lot of talk about money wasted in Ireland, particularly in the last number of years.

“Not one single euro is wasted here. Every single euro, every single one, is going to enrich the lives of people in ways in which they’d want their lives enriched, with spirit, heart, hope, friendship, fun, strength of community,” Mrs McAleese said.

“You don’t make community by doing nothing, you make community by doing what you’ve done here — organising, planning, not giving up; so you have a day like this, a day of celebration.”