E35... that’s what this State thinks you’re worth in your twilight years

HOW would you fancy E35 worth of dignity and independence? Close your eyes for a minute, just a minute, and try to imagine your own life without dignity.

Imagine a life utterly without independence. They're actually difficult enough concepts to define, aren't they?

And yet when you think of a life without any dignity or independence at all, a life thrown at the mercy of other people, a life where you have nothing to share... it wouldn't be for you, would it? We can all expect some hardship in our lives. There will be times for all of us when we rely on the friendship and support of others, times when we won't be able to get through without outside help.

When we're older, particularly, or if anything of a long-term nature goes wrong, we might need more than a little help from family, friends, maybe even strangers. Perhaps we might need to rely even on the support of the state that we have helped to build with our work and our taxes.

Throughout it all, I think most of us would agree that it would be important to us to be treated with respect. Respect for our dignity, our independence, the fact that even if we're in trouble and need help, that doesn't mean we've stopped being citizens.

Suppose you needed the help of a friend, and the friend said this:

"Sure, I'll look after you. I'll give you the shelter and support you need because you've always been my friend. When I needed help you gave it willingly. But in return for my help now I'm going to need you to give me most of your income. I'm going to need you to be entirely dependent on me and no-one else. I'm going to need you to recognise that from this moment on, such dignity as you have is in my hands."

I could be wrong about this, but I reckon it wouldn't be much of a friend that would react like that if you needed their help.

But it's what our State is doing. Our State, the one we pay taxes to support, the one we have helped to build ever since it got its independence. And who is the State doing it to? Right now, they're doing it to elderly people who need help and support. And they're trying to figure out how to do it to disabled people next.

E35. That's what our State had decided ought to be the value of a person's dignity.

E35. In the eyes of our State, it's enough to maintain the independence of a person. Enough to command respect in the world we live in.

In future, under regulations introduced in June of this year, an elderly person who needs the care and support of the State will be required to hand over every penny of their income or pension. Every penny, except E35. They'll be allowed to keep that, in the interests of their dignity and independence.

It won't matter if the person who needs help has given a lifetime of work and service. It won't matter if they have raised a family that is a credit to taxpayers everywhere. It won't matter if they taught thousands of kids throughout their lifetimes, or put out hundreds of fires, or helped build a thousand miles of road. In future, if they need the care of this republic, they will have to pay for it. With more or less everything they've got.

E35. Is it enough to buy a present for a grandchild, or celebrate a little one's first holy communion? Is it enough to buy a nice blouse to receive visitors in, or have a social drink in a pub at the end of a walk? Is it enough to buy the newspaper every day, as you've done all your life, or keep a nice fresh bunch of flowers in your room?

Is it enough to send Christmas cards to all the friends and neighbours you want to remember? Is it enough to buy your own favourite brand of breakfast cereal or air freshener? It had better be, because that's all our state is going to leave you with if you need our help and support at the end of your days.

And do you know what I hate most? Our state didn't even have the guts to tell us what they were doing. When the regulations were published to enable this to happen back in June, they tried to express it the other way around.

This is the way it was put in the press release, which dealt with two 'classes:'

"THE first class refers to people in receipt of in-patient services on premises where nursing care is provided on a 24- hour basis on those premises. In this case, a weekly charge can be levied of E120 or the weekly income of that person less E35, whichever is the lesser.

"The second class refers to people in receipt of in-patient services on premises where nursing care is not provided on a 24-hour basis on those premises. In this situation, a weekly charge can be levied of E90, or the weekly income of that person less E55, or 60% of the weekly income of that person, whichever is the lesser."

That gobbledegook refers to elderly people in the care of the State. If they need nursing care, the State will take everything they have except 35 a week. If they don't need nursing care, they will be left with E55 a week.

Elderly people aren't the only ones. There are several thousand people with a disability living in sheltered, supported or semi-independent accommodation. They work hard at the jobs they have, they travel to their sporting activities, they enjoy parties, they buy each other presents, and they like nice clothes.

They do a lot with the small allowance the State gives them on account of their disability. The State hasn't yet decided how much they are going to take away now for their accommodation and support. You can be fairly sure that the people involved won't be left with much apart from pious platitudes about their dignity and independence, of course.

I'm just wondering. Is this what the drafters of our constitution meant when they wrote, "And seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured?"

Is this what the Taoiseach and Tánaiste meant when they wrote in their programme for government about elderly people: "One of our core objectives will be to help all older people to live in the dignity which their immense contribution to the development of our country deserves"?

Or when they wrote in the same document about people with disabilities: "We are committed to building legislative frameworks which enable people with disabilities to fulfil their potential and make a full contribution to the economic and social life of our country"?

Or is this just what some people are trying to make us become a country that pays lip service to dignity, but only if it doesn't cost us any money.