A Chara

Starting next January, every child in Ireland aged between 3 years 3 months and 4 years 6 months – all 70,000 of them – will benefit from the new pre-school care and education year being introduced by the Government.

It is an imaginative scheme being implemented in a remarkably short time as it capitalises on the pre-school services already being provided by community and private providers. A clear demonstration of their interest in delivering the service is the fact that 4,000 of them – an overwhelming 85% of childcare services now in operation – have applied to participate in the new service.

A litmus test of the kind of society we are creating in Ireland is how well we are meeting the commitment in the 1916 Proclamation of “cherishing all of the children of the nation equally”. I believe that the new pre-school scheme is consistent with that noble aspiration.

The provision of a year’s free pre-school to all children will promote equality of opportunity at the most important developmental stage of children’s lives. The real winners will be the more disadvantaged and marginalised children in our society who do not currently benefit from pre-school care and education. It will help reduce the current inequity whereby not all children come to primary school with the same level of education preparedness.

For the first time specific qualification standards will be in place for pre-school provision.

I congratulate Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, TD for announcing the free pre-school year in his Supplementary Budget last April and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews TD and his dedicated department officials for advancing so well the arrangements for the start of the service in January next.

As a senator who has campaigned for a New Approach to Childcare and specifically for “a years free school education for every 3 year old” [see my policy document of November 2006, Recomendation 6], I warmly welcome the Governments initative as a huge social advance, Its significance is reinforced by recenly published information showing that at 7.4%, we have the highest proportion of pre-school children aged 0-4 years in our population than any of the 27 member states of the EU [Children and Young People in Ireland 2008, Central Statistics Office].

My Newsletter outlines the main features of the New Free Scheme, however should you have any queries, I am always delighted to hear from you.

ádh Mór,

Dear Colleague

Currently in Ireland, over 11% of our population are over 65 years old, this is expected to rise to 17% by 2026, and despite stereotypes to the contrary, the vast majority are healthy, able and active people with much to offer their communities and society as a whole.

However, in my publication A new Approach to Ageing and Ageism, I highlighted the fear that many older people have concerning the financing of their future private nursing home care. People face very different costs depending on whether they are in public or private nursing homes and depending on what part of the country they live in.

It is due to the vision and perseverance of Minister For Health and Children Mary Harney TD and ably assisted by Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children áine Brady TD, that the innovative and exciting Nursing Home Support Scheme Act 2009 or Fair Deal has been finally passed by both the Dáil and Seanad. Minister Harney has advised me that the new Fair Deal Scheme will come into effect in September of this year.

With the introduction of the Fair Deal Scheme, no person will ever again be under pressure to sell their home to pay for nursing home care and family members will not have to contribute to the costs of their parent’s nursing home care. From now on, a person will contribute to care costs based on their means.

During the passage of the Bill through the Dáil and the Seanad, important safeguards were introduced with respect to farms and businesses and I explain these changes further on in this newsletter.

I am, as always, available to answer any queries or issues you may have and I hope this Newsletter will be helpful to you and your constituents.

Sincerely

Mo Chairde,

In my last Newsletter on How to cope during the Recession, I listed the main sources of help for anyone who has lost their job or are facing huge problems in meeting all their financial commitments, particularly to Banks over mortgage payments or personal debts.

In this Newsletter, I describe recent helpful developments and go into more detail about how exactly different organisations can help people cope. As people continue to lose their jobs each week, the need to assist them through these difficult times grows even more urgent.

I have also picked out features from the Supplementary Budget presented by the Minister for Finance on Tuesday 7th April relevant to the person or family coping with the recession and unemployment.

Mo Chairde,

As the recession across the world and in Ireland continues to worsen, we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of our fellow citizens who have lost their jobs. At the end of January, there were some 328,000 people on the Live Register, 36,500 more in that month alone and 146,000 more than at the end of January last year.

It is a frightening and traumatic experience for the newly unemployed person and their family. The prospect of being made redundant is a very real worry for others whose firms are facing serious problems due to the downturn in business.

To try to ease the burden, I have put together the most relevant and practical sources of advice for those suffering a large drop of income at this time.

It is most important to get the message across that there is help out there and that no one is alone.

Mo Chairde,

The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, T.D. accompanied by Máire Hoctor, T.D. Minister for Older People, on Thursday, 9 October 2008 announced the publication of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Bill 2008. This was a landmark day for those people already in private nursing homes who are not currently getting state subvention and for those thousands of people and their families worried about the huge burden of costs if a family member has to go into a nursing home for long term care.

In my Policy Document “A New Approach to Ageing and Ageism” of June 2006 I spelt out the need for reform in the current unfair system of funding for nursing home care for older people. What’s wrong with the current system is that people face very different costs depending on whether they are in public or private nursing homes. While public long-stay care is free to eligible older people, private bed costs vary between €800 and €1100 per week. Therefore, the average cost of a long stay place is between €41,600 – €57,200 per year. The current system is unfair and creates enormous anxiety for residents of private nursing homes, their children and their families.

Currently, there are not enough public nursing home beds to meet the demand from eligible people and there is an oversupply of private nursing home beds. Criteria for eligibility for subvention schemes in private nursing homes are not always clear cut and there are inconsistencies between different Health Service Executive regions. Some people in private homes get no support from the State. Many people who do get support through subvention schemes still cannot afford to pay the balance of their costs. As a result, people are sometimes forced to sell or mortgage their homes to pay for nursing home care and must rely on contributions from their children, family and friends.

As the proportion of older people in Ireland relative to the overall population is increasing the new “Nursing Home Support Scheme – A Fair Deal” provides a level playing field where access to nursing home care will be affordable, accessible and anxiety free. The Bill will be analysed in the Dáil and Seanad in the coming weeks. It may well be that issues will arise in the course of the Oireachtas consideration about some aspects of the proposals and I expect that these issues will be considered on their merits before the new Bill becomes law.

Beir bua agus beannacht,

Mo Chairde,

I would like to thank everyone who attended my recent conference Suicide Prevention: A Call To Action in the Dublin Citywest Hotel. There was agreement among the speakers and participants at the conference that the government must lead a national conversation on suicide prevention. It was agreed that suicide is everybody’s problem and we must work together to raise awareness to help reduce the incidence of suicide and self-harm.

It is important to remind ourselves that the Joint Programme for Government 2007 promised to reduce the rate of suicide in Ireland by 20% by 2012 and promised to implement as a matter of urgency, the recommendations of Reach Out, the National Strategy For Action for Suicide Prevention and the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Sub-Committee on the High Level of Suicide in Ireland.

On February last a meeting took place in Leinster House between the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children and the Committee for Health, Social Services and Public Safety from the Assembly in the North led by chairwoman Mrs. Iris Robinson to discuss the incidence of suicide both north and south.

Between 2003 – 2006 there have been over 2800 deaths by suicide on the island of Ireland. It is comforting to know that there is now in place a formal commitment to An All-island Action Plan on Suicide Prevention and some early progress is already reported. For example, training in Safe Talk, a new intervention programme with trainers in suicide intervention skills from north and south participating together and an All-island Mental Health Awareness Campaign has already taken place.

A new report Suicide, Attempted Suicide and Prevention in Ireland and Elsewhere published in March 2008 by Dr. Dermot Walsh, principal investigator in mental health at the Health Research Board focuses on the potential reasons behind suicide and reviews suicide prevention measures. “People take their own lives for a multitude of reasons” according to Dr. Walsh. “From the evidence available, we are unable to explain why young male suicide increased to such a high rate in 1998 any more than we can explain why it has fallen since. This presents signifi cant problems when it comes to determining how we can prevent suicide”.

Dr. Walsh’s report goes on to say that EU figures from 2005 show that the greatest differences between Ireland and other EU countries are “the disproportionately high number of Irish male suicides in the younger age groups and the lower rates among Irish people aged 65 years and older”.

On April 9 Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (with special responsibility for disability issues and mental health) Jimmy Devins T.D. addressed the 3rd. Annual Forum for Suicide Prevention. “The title of our National Strategy for Action on Suicide prevention” Reach Out captures the essence of the message we need to convey when we talk of suicide. We as policy makers, as individuals or organisations working in the area of suicide prevention need to foster a culture where people in distress, at whatever stage in their lives, won’t hesitate to seek help, a culture that recognises the signs and signals of distress and is willing to help, and that focuses early in life on developing good coping skills and avoiding harmful practices.

Mo Chairde,

The week before Christmas brought good news for the not-for-profi t community based childcare sector when the Minister for Children, Brendan Smith TD, announced radical improvements to the fi nancial support earlier proposed.

From the start, Minister Smith had pledged that he was open to adjusting the proposed new subvention scheme when he got the returns from the community childcare providers and could assess the effect of the proposed changes. By December, 90% of providers had returned the information requested and instead of waiting until the New Year as previously scheduled, Minister Smith brought his proposed improvements to Cabinet and got their approval on 18 December for the revised package which he announced that day.

One of the most radical improvements announced by the Minister is the introduction of a new Band C which will target the needs of low income families. The Office of the Minister for Children (OMC) is working with the City and County Childcare Committees to advise childcare providers on how the Band C subvention should be applied.

To date, 808 not-for-profit community based childcare services have received staffing grants and 831 have received capital grants and 1,179 private childcare providers have received capital grants.

I am ready to help you with any clarification of the new scheme and if you need help with your local childcare issues I will be only too pleased to help you.

Beir bua agus beannacht,

Mo Chairde,

During the course of the recent Seanad election several county councillors suggested that following my policy on A New Approach to Childcare and A New Approach to Ageing and Ageism, I should take up the issue of Suicide Awareness and Prevention. This newsletter is a first step in my response.

More people die by suicide in Ireland each year than in road traffic accidents. In 2006 there were 366 road deaths (Road Safety Authority figures) and 409 deaths by suicide (National Office of Suicide Prevention).

While overall suicide rates in Ireland are lower than the EU average, youth suicde rates are the fifth highest in Europe.

the suicde rate among older people has risen significantly over the last five years which is a terrible manifestation of the increasing isolation felt by older people in this time of rapid social change. Isolation, death of a spouse or partner and the family moving away, lack of a purpose in life, diagnosis of a life – threatening disease like cancer can all be triggers to suicidal thoughts.

Local elected politicians are ideally placed to watch out for older people who may become socially isolated, get sick, lonely, depressed and subsequently suicidal. I have listed in this newsletter sources of advise and guidance which councillors can bring to the attention of people in their area.

Mo Chairde,

I would like to take this opportunity to once again extend my gratitude to all who were so supportive during my recent election campaign.

I am delighted to announce that I have been given responsibility as the Fianna Fail spokesperson for Older People and for Children in Seanad Eireann.

In this capacity and in my role as a public representative I am acutely aware of the excellent work carried out by community and voluntary groups across the country. These worthy projects are in constant need of support. The details enclosed provide possible sources of this support.

I have compiled details on a number of grants that are currently open for application that can provide support for these very valuable ventures.

I hope that this correspondence will be of use to you in your excellent work in your local areas. If there is anything else that I can do to assist you in this work please feel free to contact me and I will do my utmost to be of assistance.