Planning for an ageing Ireland: Loneliness in old age

Demographers — and pension advisers — have been warning us about the implications of Ireland’s ageing population for some years but our response has been more head-in-the-sand than get-up-and-go.

Or fatalism dressed up, as is usual, as faux optimism means we have not begun to plan adequately for a situation where the number of people over 60 will more than double in the coming decades.

One issue already to the fore, and one that unless we tackle it will get worse, is the sense of isolation and, occasionally, vulnerability felt by older people, especially those living alone. A new freephone service, Senior Help Line, was launched yesterday to try to counter this phenomenon.