Research showing that Irish people still want to have regular sex into their eighties has been welcomed by Age Action Ireland.
Mr Paul Murray, a spokesman for the group, says that anything which undermines stereotypes about what older people want, and do, is heartily welcomed.
"For too long there seems to have been a public assumption that older people, after their child rearing years, become non-sexual beings whose only interest is in cocoa, an early night and a sound sleep. This is nonsense, and for this reason Pfizer's Global Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviourshas to be welcomed," said Mr Murray.
"Why is it that we continue to measure, and to judge, people by their chronological age, to forget that older people are as different from each other as the younger generation. They are not a grey amorphous mass. As the survey showed, sexual desire does not stop at 40. Almost 65 per cent of Irish people rated sex as very important in order to be able to express love and affection for their partner," Mr Murray added.
The survey shows that a significant number of older people enjoy a sex life. Three out of four Irish women aged 50-59 had sex within the last 12 months. The figure for Irish men was 70 per cent.
However, only half of all men in their 60s had had sex in the last 12 months. Pfizer, which produces the Viagra drug, says this is mainly due to increasing impotence.