Alliance of Age Sector NGOs

February 2024 Update:

“Taking stock: Is Government keeping its commitments to older people?”
Alliance of Age Sector NGOs call for an Independent Commissioner for Ageing and Older People

Dublin, 14 February 2024 The Alliance of Age Sector NGOs, representing seven leading older persons organisations*, is calling on all political parties to include a commitment in their manifestos, ahead of the next general election, to establish an Independent Commissioner for Ageing and Older People and to relaunch the National Positive Ageing Strategy (2013) with a strong implementation and monitoring plan and a ring-fenced budget.
According to ‘Taking stock: Is Government keeping its commitments to older people?’, a hard-hitting review launched today by the Alliance, there has been a significant failure to deliver many of Ireland’s policy commitments for ageing and older people.

The review sets out the extensive range of policy commitments relevant to our ageing population as described in key Government publications and provides a summary of the progress made in the various areas.

Read the Executive Summary
Read the Full Report

This important review:
• Provides a ‘deep dive’ analysis of 17 thematic areas relevant to the lives of older people and an ageing population.
• Focuses in on 15 commitments made in respect of older people and rates the Government on its efforts in each of these areas.
• Illustrates how many of the commitments set out as part of the relevant policy frameworks have yet to be meaningfully advanced or benefited from coordinated implementation.
• Reinforces the call for the establishment of an Independent Commissioner for Ageing and Older People.
The Age Alliance believes such an office would be a key ‘asset’ for Government, helping its departments and agencies to integrate ageing issues into all relevant policy fields and to effect strong implementation and good value for money.
Our older adult population will be the fastest growing demographic of the 21st Century and must be centrally catered for as part of any ambitions and priorities of government now and in the future.
Policy commitments relevant to an ageing population have been defined across a range of key Government publications, including, but not limited to, the current Programme for Government; Our Shared Future, 2020; the Roadmap for Social Inclusion, 2020; the Sláintecare Strategy and Action Plan, 2021-2023; the Healthy Ireland Strategic Action Plan, 2021; Project Ireland 2040, the National Planning Framework; the joint policy statement, Housing Options for our Ageing Population, 2020; and the National Positive Ageing Strategy, 2013.

* The seven-member organisations of the Alliance are Active Retirement Ireland, Age & Opportunity, ALONE, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Irish Hospice Foundation, The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament and Third Age.


September 2023 Update: 

The Alliance of Age Sector NGOs Pre-Budget Submission – Budget 2024

The Alliance of Age Sector NGOs (the Alliance) represents the collective thinking of seven significant NGOs working in the age sector.

Each of the seven-member organisations has set out its recommendations for Budget 2024. As a collective partnership – the Alliance members are, however, making just one call on the Government as it finalises Budget 2024:

  • To support the Alliance’s call for the speedy establishment of an Independent Commissioner for Ageing and Older People that would account directly to the Oireachtas, with a mandate to safeguard and protect the interests and well-being of older people and an ageing population.

Ireland is ageing faster than anywhere else in Europe. The over-65 population has grown by 35 per cent over the past decade, and this group is predicted to reach 1 million people by 2031.

Independent Commissioners, with strong track records of achievements, are in place in both Northern Ireland (estb. 2011 with a £1.5m budget in 2022) and Wales (estb. 2008 with a £1.1m budget in 2022).

This single investment – the establishment of an Independent Commissioner, will help to ensure that Ireland’s various policy commitments relevant to older people are meaningfully monitored and that older people are treated with respect and on an equal basis with the rest of the population.

The Alliance Pre-Budget Submission is available to read here.

The Alliance’s more detailed position paper, which outlines the rationale for such an office, is available here.

The Alliance membership includes Active Retirement Ireland, Age & Opportunity, ALONE, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Irish Hospice Foundation, The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament and Third Age.


January 2023 Update: The launches its 2023 Report, ‘Telling It Like It Is; Combatting Ageism,’ which sets out why Ireland needs to take ageism seriously and take meaningful action to counteract it. The report highlights the nature and impact of ageism in Ireland and offers several evidence-informed strategies to reduce it. The report includes nine actions that, when implemented, will reduce the stigma and ill effects associated with ageing. The most pressing of these actions is the appointment of an Independent Commissioner for Ageing and Older People – similar to that in Northern Ireland and Wales. Download the Full Report here. Download the executive summary here.

The Alliance of Age Sector NGOs (AASNGO, the Alliance) is a collective of seven important NGOs working in the age sector, including The Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

The Alliance aims to effect positive change for older people by uniting our learning from working with the diversity of older people and the issues that they face.

The seven-member organisations are Active Retirement Ireland, Age & Opportunity, ALONE, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Irish Hospice Foundation, The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament and Third Age.

March 2022 Update: The Alliance launched its Annual Statement, and the message to policymakers is clear: ‘Take ageism seriously and resource implementation of the National Positive Ageing Strategy’.

The pandemic is, of course, not over. The heightened challenges faced by older people during COVID-19 have been clear for all to see. So the Alliance will continue to call for a renewed focus on regaining the positive role of older people in society.

In particular, the Alliance wants the Government to:

• Institute a coherent system of supports so that older people can stay in their own homes to end of life, as so many want to do.
• Take ageism seriously and implement a well-resourced and meaningful
programme of action to counteract it.
• Appoint a champion with a cross-Departmental brief to prioritise older people’s issues across the board and resource the active implementation of the National Positive Ageing Strategy (2013).
• Establish an independent Commissioner or Ombudsman for Older People, similar to that in Northern Ireland.

The report makes the call for a post-pandemic focus on regaining older people’s role in society and to ensure that their interests are considered by elected reps when making decisions, now more than ever. The report is available to read HERE


 

July 2021 Update: The Alliance’s first publication, ‘Telling It Like It Is’, is a frank and unfiltered account of older people’s experience in Ireland during Covid-19, as told to the staff and volunteers of the seven organisations.

You can read this document HERE

We issued our press release on 28th July. You can read it HERE

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