Elderly care - Attitude of civil servants is shameful

Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly was damning, to say the least, in her remarks yesterday about the “thoughtless, insensitive and penny-pinching” attitude towards the elderly by civil servants.

She outlined cases where people experienced untoward delays in the provision of an accessible shower or even incontinence pads, and other small matters that could make life more bearable.

Unfortunately, she was not alone in her criticism of how the elderly can be cruelly mistreated in this country.

The president of the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC), Dr Maurice Manning, told the same seminar, organised by Age Action Ireland as part of Positive Ageing Week, that some of the worst abuses of human rights in Ireland could be found in nursing homes.

He also referred to Leas Cross about which he had commissioned a report in 2001, which had made most of the points subsequently highlighted by Prime Time.

The seminar was also told that allegations of age discrimination in the workplace currently accounted for 23% of the caseload of the Equality Authority.