The Government has been accused of "failing older people" and of pursuing a policy of "institutionalising our elderly" by housing charity the Irish Council for Social Housing.
In a report released yesterday, the ICSH said the Government has failed to provide funding for non-profit community housing schemes, while financing private nursing homes with €110 million annually. According to the report, over 70 per cent of housing for the elderly provided by housing associations received no statutory funding in 2003, with most having to rely on fundraising to provide care services to the elderly.
Mr Donal McManus, executive director of the ICSH, said housing associations provide sheltered housing and low support schemes for elderly people who need some help to live independently but do not require residential nursing care.
The report also highlighted a major problem in developing sheltered housing schemes, saying that while capital funding is available to build the projects, there is no funding scheme in place to run them.
The Minister of State for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Noel Ahern, whose Department is in charge of capital funding for social housing, said last night that any criticism made in the report was not directed at his Department. He told The The Irish Times that funding from his Department meant a record 1,700 units were built last year with over €240 million spent.
"The criticism lodged is in relation to the running costs of the projects which is a matter for the Department of Health who operate such schemes through the health boards.
"I would be very surprised and shocked at any criticism directed at my Department given our record."
Mr Ahern also said that the voluntary organisations such as the ICSH have moved away from providing houses for special needs groups such as the elderly and the disabled to providing units for families.
"The ICSH and their affiliates are currently drifting away from helping the elderly and are doing more for the family units," he added.
Seventy-nine housing associations were surveyed as part of the report, which provide over three thousand units of accommodation for the elderly. Over one-third of those units are high support for "frail to very frail elderly persons".
Major difficulties encountered by the housing associations in providing care for the elderly include the lack of funding for the running costs of such projects and the lack of any co-ordination between health boards and local authorities, the report found.
The ICSH is the national federation of social housing organisations with over 220 housing associations affiliated throughout the State.
The associations currently provide over 17,000 homes for the poor, the elderly and the disabled.