Sir, – I may be getting older. But I’m well able to recognise a careless State service when I receive one. Especially when it’s a service for older people. Quite by accident at a Dart station I discovered that my Public Services Card had passed its expiry date. No notification. No reminder. No warning. It had quietly expired. When I went to renew it online I came up against a brick wall when it came to updating my photograph. Quite simply, each time I uploaded a head-and-shoulders photograph of myself it was rejected. The main reason given for this was that my photo didn’t have the correct 4:3 portrait dimensions. In the end, I put my photograph up on my photo-editing software and cropped it to exactly the correct proportions and it was finally accepted. I’m lucky because I’m used to working online.
But this is a very carelessly managed social service for older people.
Why on earth do older people not get advanced notification when their all-important Public Services Cards are coming up to expiry date? And how many older people are familiar with the concept of uploading a 4:3 portrait photo online? – Yours, etc,
ROBERT HAYES-McCOY,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.