THE POLITICS OF OLD AGE
Older peoples interest organisations and collective action in Ireland
Martha Doyle
Manchester University Press
Copyright Martha Doyle 2014
The right of Martha Doyle to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN 978 0 71909047 9 hardback
First published 2014
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Dedicated to
the older and younger generations in my life
Contents
This book is the outcome of a PhD thesis which I completed while working as a Research Fellow in the Social Policy and Ageing Research Centre in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Virpi Timonen, Trinity College Dublin, for encouraging me to pursue and complete the doctorate and for her support, guidance, positivity and advice during the completion of the thesis. To Professor Marian Barnes, University of Brighton, and Professor Tom Scharf, National University of Galway, Ireland, I am much indebted for the invaluable advice they gave during and after my PhD viva voce which helped me to clarify my own thoughts and improve upon the theoretical arguments of this book. I would also like to acknowledge the help of a small number of people who during the research journey allowed me to discuss my ideas and, in turn, offered suggestions and direction. While the nature of this contact was in most instances brief, nonetheless the advice and support given at the time was much appreciated. Among those I would like to thank are Dr Achim Goorres, University of Duisburg-Essen, for his encouragement, feedback and advice at the Joint ESPAnet/ESA network in Amsterdam in 2008 and the ECPR workshop in Lisbon in 2009, and Professor Gary Murphy, Dublin City University for allowing me to talk through my ideas in the early stages of the project. I am thankful also to my former colleagues in the Social Policy and Ageing Centre and the Living in Dementia Progamme for their support, encouragement and advice when I shared my concerns and ideas regarding the research over the years. To my family, husband and parents-inlaw I am much indebted and express my sincere thanks for their unfailing support and help with the care of my two beloved little boys, Matthew and Ciaran, so that I could dedicate the additional time required to work on this project. My deepest thanks go to my brother, Dr Cathal Doyle, Middlesex University, for the careful proof-reading of drafts of the book. Finally thanks to each of the seventy-five participants who agreed to be interviewed as part of the research. Without their cooperation this project would not have been possible. Thank you for giving up your time to meet with me. I hope that I have relayed an accurate account of your experiences and perceptions and that the research will be of some value to you.
In his 2001 budget speech, the Fianna Fil Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, stated that the government wished to recognise the part played by the workers of yesterday in laying the foundation for so much of our current economic success (Humphries, ) and granted all persons aged 70 years and over an automatic entitlement to a medical card. The medical card offered beneficiaries free GP services, prescribed drugs and medicines (with some exceptions), in-patient public hospital services, out-patient services and free medical appliances, and dental, optical and aural services. The government decision was announced before any negotiations had taken place with GPs on how much they would be paid for treating the new over-70s card holders. Subsequently, the Irish Medical Organisation demanded that GPs treating the new beneficiaries, who were over 70, get treble the payment that was formerly received for those who held means-tested medical cards. The government acquiesced.
Seven years later, on 14 October 2008, the Fianna Fil Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, presented the Irish Parliament with the government budget for 2009. In an effort to save public money he announced that the automatic universal entitlement for people aged 70 years and over to a medical card would be abolished. Instead, he proposed that a means-based system of assessment would be introduced. The print and television media dedicated a significant amount of time and resources to covering this controversial measure. The two largest older peoples advocacy groups in Ireland, the Senior Citizens Parliament and Age Action Ireland, immediately issued press releases condemning the move and called for an immediate reversal of the decision. They organised two public meetings, one of which was attended by over 2,000 older people and another by approximately 15,000. As such, these protests were the largest protests orchestrated and executed by older people to occur in the history of the Irish state. At both these demonstrations, ministers who attempted to address the crowds were heckled and jeered and forced to cut short their speeches. The demonstrators were supported not just by the general public but by the opposition political parties. Support was even garnered from Dublin city taxi drivers who provided free taxis from Dublins main train station to the protest demonstration at Leinster House, while Insomnia, a coffee chain, provided free coffees to all persons aged 70 and over who attended the march. There appeared to be few opponents to the organisations call to reverse the decision; nursing home representative groups and even doctors, a group who had been critical of its introduction in 2001, were now critical of the move to remove the automatic entitlement to the medical card.
Over the course of ten days the campaign gained momentum. Serious tensions and fissures emerged not just within the coalition government, but also within rank and file members of the Fianna Fil Parliamentary Party. The full extent of these divisions was laid bare when first a Fianna Fil TD (member of parliament) resigned from the party and then an Independent TD withdrew his support from the coalition government. To placate the voting electorate the Minister for Finance moved quickly and announced five different eligibility thresholds. The protests resulted in significant changes to the means-test limit but did not result in a complete reversal of the decision. The automatic entitlement to a medical card for all persons aged 70 and over ended on 31December 2008. Under the Health Act 2008, everyone aged over 70 who applies for a medical card is subject to a means-test. People with a weekly gross income above 700 for a single person or 1,400 for a couple would no longer be entitled to a medical card.
