Our Budget 2025 recommendations reflect learnings from participants and partners in our programmes and research and are directed towards Government Departments with the scope to help realise Ireland’s ambition to be the best country in which to grow older.
Underpinning our submission this year is the acknowledgement that Budget 2025 is the last chance for this government to honour the commitments made in its Programme for Government. This included delivery of a Statutory Homecare Scheme and development of an implementation plan to deliver on the objectives of tackling loneliness and isolation, neither of which has been realised.
While we do welcome the recent establishment of a Commission on Care, as pledged, we believe that creating an Age Friendly Ireland must be done from a much broader perspective. While the Commission on Care will have an important role in examining the care and support needs of older people, there is a further need for an independent Champion to expand the narrative about ageing beyond health and care, tackle institutional ageism, and support older persons to realise all their rights in relation to full participation in society.
We prioritise in this pre-budget submission our call for the establishment of an Independent Commissioner for Ageing and Older People, similar to that which is in place in both Northern Ireland and Wales. This would support our ageing population by ensuring a programme for government which really does value older persons. It would ensure that the commitment to mainstreaming ageing is kept to the fore of policy and decision-making and would hold this – and future governments – to account regarding the rights of older persons.
