Plan now to cope with ageing population’

Cork is facing a crisis if it does not start planning now for a major increase in the city and county’s ageing population.

The warning came after figures showed there could be up to 100,000 people over the age of 65 living in the city and county by 2026.

To put that in context, in 2006, there were 54,658 people over 65 in Cork, with 16,847 in the city and 37,811 in the county.

County councillor Deirdre Forde has called on Cork’s two main local authorities to take a lead by ensuring that appropriate facilities are in place to cater for the ageing population.

“While at national level discussions are ongoing to deliver a first-class service for the future, with the emphasis shifting from residential care to care in the home, equally we must review our plans at local level, especially given insufficient numbers of sites for care homes have been identified in the council’s Local Area Plans.”

The proportion of older people as a percentage of the working population is expected to reach 39% by 2036. Ms Forde said there are 2,304 privately-run nursing home beds in the city and county, and a further 1,040 publicly run.

“People are living longer, but not necessarily healthier, lives and therefore we need to ensure the councils, working in tandem with other agencies such as the HSE and Age Action, ramp up a broad range of facilities,” Ms Forde said.

“If current trends continue the numbers of older people living in residential care are expected to reach 5.4%. Clearly we will be in trouble if dramatic action isn’t taken swiftly.”

She said local authorities should also ensure that community facilities are adapted to ensure they can cater for a bigger elderly population.

“I believe that as we are living longer, and with the emphasis on being active longer, we should focus on the provisions of facilities and encourage entrepreneurs to deliver age-appropriate facilities,” the Fine Gael councillor said.

“Just because people are ageing is no reason to assume they are invisible. We should honour them and value their business and support them as they gracefully age.”