Sir, – It is now more than three years since the then government published the National Positive Ageing Strategy. Despite the fact that the "clock is ticking", as you observe in your editorial of June 8th, there is no sign of an implementation plan setting out how we will support growing numbers of older people.
A key priority of this strategy was to ensure that older people would have enough not just to stay out of poverty, but to live with dignity in their later years, with some measure of independence.
Recent CSO figures show a drop in the number of people with private pensions, which makes ensuring a fair, sustainable state pension an even greater priority.
We need a better state pension today, one that restores the income lost by pensioners over the last seven years as secondary income supports were cut and abolished.
But we also need to act now to ensure an effective state pension will be there tomorrow for those of us in their 20s, 30s and 40s who struggle to afford a private pension.
Finally, in reference to the headline of your editorial, growing numbers of older people do not constitute a “demographic time bomb”. We face a policy failure, one that can be avoided, and not one created by older people.
Living longer is something to celebrate and it is certainly preferable to the alternative. – Yours, etc,
JUSTIN MORAN,
Head of Advocacy
and Communications,
Age Action Ireland,
Lower Camden Street,
Dublin 2.