Analysis: Estimates should be seen as just that, an indication of the carve-up to be announced on December 7th.
Older people will be watching with hope in two pivotal areas: pensions and latter day care where, being an election budget, Ministers Harney and Brennan will be expected to introduce significant improvements. It is not just about cash. There will have to be, as Séamus Brennan has promised, a "deep social policy" about the payments.
To be fair, the mood music from Government, at times, has been encouraging.
There is talk of a wide expansion in home care packages - to deal with people who might otherwise be inappropriately placed in nursing homes - and there is a healthy engagement on pensions issues.
To avoid poverty, and older people are at great risk from it, adequate State pensions are vital. It may not, indeed, be generally realised how poorly Irish pensions compare with many other countries.
A Pensions Board recommendation in 1998 stated that the State pension should be, at minimum, 34 per cent of gross average industrial earnings.
Seven years later that percentage is about 32 per cent. This compares with an average of about 57 per cent among developed countries.
Recent Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures also show that Ireland spends only 3.6 per cent of GDP on old age protection compared with an average of 12.6 per cent in the EU-15. So there is a daunting task if we want to make Ireland the best place in which to grow old - Age Action Ireland's goal.
The 9 per cent health allocation increase and the € 60 million extra for pensions can only give a guideline to Government intentions. But, among other things, we believe the basic means-tested pension should go up €16 a week to €182. Moreover, the contributory pension should be linked to gross average industrial earnings, reaching 40 per cent of this figure within 10 years.
The qualified adult dependant allowance should also be paid at the rate of the means-tested pension. Minister for Social Community& Family Affairs Séamus Brennan has intimated that fuel allowances might be raised and that non-contributory recipients will be able to earn substantially more than €7.60 a week without affecting their pensions.
Such improvements would certainly be welcomed, as would an option now being considered by Government, for older people to defer their pensions in return for enhanced payments in later years - as suggested last week by the Pensions Board.
Budget day highlights, therefore, will hinge mainly on increased pensions, financial backing for the home care of older people, and higher subventions and income/asset thresholds for those who want to use private nursing homes. It is possible, too, that Minister for Health Mary Harney might address issues on the long-term financing of care for the elderly, such as posthumous equity release (taking a share in the patient's home after death) to pay for nursing home care.
It is essential, however, that the financial fears of many older people, and their families, concerning nursing home costs be eased, and that community care be vastly upgraded.
• Paul Murray is head of communications at Age Action Ireland