A lack of specific services for older gay people is causing "serious concern" to people in their 60s, according to Outhouse, Dublin's gay community centre. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, will officially open Outhouse's refurbished centre today.
The centre plans to seek a meeting with the Health Service Executive to discuss the concerns of older gay people.
Outhouse manager Louise Tierney said that for the first time in Irish society there was a visible group of gay people in their 60s who had been "out" all their lives.
"They are concerned about what will happen when they need to access older people's services. It's an emerging issue and planning ahead is needed."
Outhouse is to set up a group to look at the value of supported housing specifically for the gay community.
Ms Tierney said gay housing associations had been set up in the US so that people would not have to hide their sexuality from other residents.
"We find people have a strong fear that they would be mixing with people who were homophobic in a supporting housing setting and would have to keep their identity hidden. There are very strong concerns about that," she said.
Some people felt that supported gay housing would ghettoise people but the experience in the US was that this could be avoided if it was handled in a sensitive manner, she said.
Ms Tierney said gay people faced unique issues as they got older because many of them lived alone and so were more likely to become vulnerable. Gay people often acted as carers for aged parents because they were the only unmarried child in the family and this also brought its own difficulties, she said.
Ms Tierney said older people were also worried about the type of day care services and active retirement groups that lay ahead for them.
Many of them had returned from abroad to retire, having left Ireland decades earlier because they wanted to hide their sexuality. She said it was important that there were services to support them as they aged.
Estimates on the size of the gay population vary from 2 to 10 per cent of the population.
Government should recognise gay relationships: page 14
