Care should come from local community

LIKE many others I was shocked and saddened at the plight of so many elderly Irish emigrants as depicted on the recent Prime Time programme on RTÉ.

Most commentators seem to be looking to the Government to deal with the problem but I would suggest that the responsibility rests with each community to look after its own people.

It would involve providing a site on which suitable accommodation could be built (small houses or apartments) and identifying those elderly in the UK who would like to return to their native place to live out their lives with dignity among their own people.

There are Government agencies that provide funding for the elderly so, combined with local goodwill and voluntary fundraising, it should be possible to implement a scheme such as this.

Our social services committee in Cahirciveen is about to embark on such a scheme and we would like to think that it would be the first of many all over the country.

Rosaline McCarthy,

An Bonnán Buí,

Cahirciveen,

Co Kerry