Every elderly person should be entitled to a monitored alarm system, according to the rural community organisation Muintir na Tire. The combination of stormy weather and recent attacks on the elderly have raised fears among old people living alone, the association's president, Mr Jim Quigley, said yesterday.
Muintir na Tire will be calling on the Government to provide more money for security grants to help the elderly during 1999.
Up to last May 25,000 people had applied to the Department of Social Welfare grant scheme for security devices, including pendants, improved locks and sensor lights.
The applications amounted to £7.5 million, Mr Quigley said. The Government granted a total of £5 million, leaving the shortfall to be raised by community groups and elderly people themselves.
Mr Quigley said the Government had failed in the last Budget to raise the threshold of savings at which the non-contributory State pension is reduced, despite lobbying by Muintir na Tire.
Anyone with savings of more than £6,160 has the State pension reduced. Two elderly people were murdered in their homes earlier this year. Mr Eddie Fitzmaurice (83), died from hypothermia in the bedroom of his home in Bellaghy, Co Sligo after being tied to a chair and gagged in a robbery.
Last month Dublin widow Mrs Marie Dillon died in the garage of her house in Finglas. A man has been charged with her murder. Mrs Dillon had campaigned for more state assistance for vulnerable people living alone.
