Ageism is increasing as the economic climate worsens and older people are blamed for parts of the crisis, the author of a major submission to Government on ageing has said.
Joe Larragy, of the Department of Applied Social Studies and NUI Maynooth, was speaking today at the publication of the Older and Bolder campaign's submission on the National Positive Ageing Strategy, to the government's Office of Older People.
Mr Larragy said there was "an extensive problem of ageism and ageist attitudes" here which had "become even worse due to the current economic downturn.
"It is encapsulated in clichéd references to 'old age crisis', 'pensions time-bomb', 'bed blockers' and the 'burden of the elderly'."
"Indeed, there has been a disturbing tendency to rationalise some of the measures aimed at the fiscal crisis as though they are a response to a 'crisis of ageing'.
"For example, the McCarthy report has called for an increase in the pension qualifying age to tackle 'the funding crisis…driven in large part by the sharp rise in longevity'.
"This is simply not true. The current funding crisis relates directly to the poor performance of the property, financial and stock markets, which in turn have put immense pressure on state finances by hitting tax revenue.
Older & Bolder is an alliance of NGOs in the ageing including Active Retirement Ireland, Age & Opportunity and the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament.
Mr Larragy said it was ironic in the context of references to a 'demographic time-bomb' that it was societies with higher average age and higher percentages of older people that were among the wealthiest per capita and had the strongest economies.
Patricia Conboy, Director of the Older and Bolder campaign said, such supports as there were should built upon.
"If they're removed or cut back, then the development of the strategy is simply a paper exercise," she said.
Among the areas where the campaign say examples of social and institutional ageism exist are the contractual obligation on older workers to retire at age 65, whether they want to or not; the denial of free breast cancer screening to women aged over 64 years, despite the fact that 54 per cent of women who die from cancer are aged 65 and over, and, discrimination in the area of employment - during 2008, 26 per cent of the Equality Authority's case files under the Employment Equality Acts were on age grounds, and the number of cases has grown dramatically in recent years (from 12.5 per cent in 2005);
