Press Releases

Older people from all parts of Ireland participated in Older & Bolder’s closing conference on April 25 in the Croke Park Conference Centre, Dublin.  It was a bittersweet occasion.  

It was a bittersweet day for Advocacy group Older & Bolder when the organisation hosted its closing conference in Croke Park yesterday. The main focus of the event was to celebrate Older & Bolder's achievements and to encourage its member organisations to tackle the further challenges and targets with renewed energy.

Older & Bolder congratulates Minister Kathleen Lynch on the publication of the National Positive Ageing Strategy. 

Director of Older & Bolder, Patricia Conboy said, “Older & Bolder welcomes the holistic view of ageing that the strategy embraces, the recognition for the need for a whole-of-government response and specific health-related commitments that speak to our recent Make Home Work campaign”.

The Government’s cynical decision to discontinue the Mobility Allowance and the Motorised Transport Grant is today condemned by Older & Bolder.  Ms. Patricia Conboy, director of Older & Bolder said: “Successive Governments have been acting illegally in the implementation of these schemes for 12 years and have knowingly done so for the past 4 years. This current Government is now achieving legality with an action that defies logic and compassion”.  

Older & Bolder has today 13th February met with Minister Kathleen Lynch who told us that the National Positive Ageing Strategy will be published in the coming weeks. 

Older & Bolder Director, Patricia Conboy said, “Older & Bolder welcomes the imminent publication of the National Positive Ageing Strategy. Minister Kathleen Lynch informed us that the strategy has been signed off by the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy. It is now en route to Government and we anticipate that it will be published in the coming weeks”. 

Older and younger activists exchanged experiences, reviewed strategies and shared campaign stories at a joint workshop hosted by Older & Bolder and The Union of Students of Ireland (USI) on the 24th in the Ashling Hotel in Dublin. Both organisations had been very active throughout 2012, with Older & Bolder leading a national campaign to reverse the cuts to home help services and the USI campaigning against rising college fees and cuts to the maintenance grant.

Members of the Older & Bolder alliance are calling for the fair implementation of the property tax.  The legislation before the Oireachtas today should take account of an individual’s ability to pay. This is a principle that applies to all age groups but we in Older & Bolder are particularly concerned about older people who own their own homes, who are now on low, fixed incomes and who are confronted with a new tax that takes no account of their circumstances. 

HOME-HELP HOURS TO BE RESTORED TO 2012 LEVELS

Responding to Minister Reilly’s announcement yesterday, Director of Older & Bolder, Patricia Conboy said, “Due to consistent democratic action by older people €3 million rather than the planned €8 million was cut from the home-help budget for 2012. While this will provide little comfort to those who, due to the €3 million cuts implemented, have lost vital home help hours we know that without concerted campaigning a further €5 million, equivalent to 300,000 hours, would have been cut.”

Older & Bolder is alarmed at the changes in medical card eligibility criteria announced as part of Budget 2013.