Older people The covert discrimination older Irish people face on a daily basis has been highlighted by the chief executive of Age Action Ireland, which represents older people.
"There is widespread and rampant age discrimination in many aspects of life especially in employment but also in health and personal social services and the media," Robin Webster told an EU seminar on the importance of healthy ageing in Dublin.
There was discrimination on the basis of age in the Republic in employment, health, education, and insurance, and as a society as a whole we were rarely aware of it, he said.
FÁS schemes and the back-to- education programmes were not open to the over 65s and women over the age of 65 were not entitled to free breast screening. While VHI was currently offering a travel insurance package for 49 a year, for those over 65 it cost 179, the seminar heard.
Paul Murray, communications spokesman for Age Action Ireland, has also underlined the problem. "As a society we have condemned racism and sexism but ageism has to be attacked with vigour," he said.
The conference also heard that collaboration between the member-states on ageing is of crucial importance. Many old people find themselves on the margins of society and feel unimportant.
A 2002 Healthy Ageing survey of 2,500 mature European citizens carried out by Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, highlights two of the main problems for older people were "feeling undervalued and excluded from society".
Mr Webster underlined the importance of Europe-wide projects to ameliorate the lives of older citizens. This includes Empowering the Experienced Generation publication, launched in April, which tackles the issue of helping older people to exercise their voices.
A second publication, Care in the Latter Years of Life, is aimed at giving help and support to people in the older stages of life and to their caregivers, while a website - www.experience-exchange.org - has been designed as a readily accessible forum for European groups interested in healthy ageing and the welfare of older people.
A number of projects are also in the pipeline to improve the lives of older people, the conference heard. "Reaching the Unreached" is a programme to reduce the isolation of older people.
One simple way of reducing isolation is making written information more accessible by increasing the type size of publications, delegates were told. Financial services can be made more equitable by making the screens and number buttons of ATMs bigger. Housing and public transport in rural areas are also issues that need to be tackled, the conference heard.
Mr Webster also stressed the importance of "inter-generational work" with youth forums as being crucial to breaking down barriers between the very young and the very old.
According to Dr Jack Waters, vice-president of Pfizer Incorporated, there is "a need to approach the fact that the population is ageing in a positive light. Having a large part of society older and healthier is positive."
Age Action Ireland anticipates that by 2020, one in four of the population will be over 60.
The healthy ageing seminar was part of an international conference on healthcare, called Transforming Healthcare in the New Europe, sponsored by Pfizer, ReedSmith and VHI Healthcare - it was held in Dublin from June 23rd to 25th.