THE 'GREY VOTE':Pensions, social welfare and forced emigration among the concerns of older voters at one inner-city day centre
REGULAR VISITORS to the Lourdes Day Centre on Seán McDermott Street in Dublin’s north inner city have lived through their fair share of general election campaigns.
At a meeting last week they recalled deals struck by Tony Gregory for their Dublin Central constituency and days when former taoiseach Bertie Ahern was finding his feet in politics.
But things have changed in the constituency since 2007. Gregory has passed away, Ahern has retired and Fianna Fáil in Dublin Central, where the party won 45 per cent of first preferences last time, is reportedly struggling.
Ahead of the election, members of the group are concerned about what a new government could mean for their pensions, the possibility social welfare might be cut further and that limited job prospects are forcing younger generations to emigrate.
“My grandniece had to move to Australia with her boyfriend. It’s disgraceful,” said Margaret Foley from Brendan Behan Court.
Group members are unsure if any party, or coalition, can put right the issues facing the State but one thing is certain, they will exercise their right to vote. “It’s our duty to vote and get on with it,” Ms Foley said. “We’ll just have to wait and see what comes of it.”
The “grey vote” will undoubtedly be a force in deciding the outcome of the election here and across the country. Some 470,000 people, or 17 per cent of the electorate, are aged over 65.
The latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll show that, at 29 per cent, over 65s remain nearly twice as likely to vote for Fianna Fáil. But even in this one-time party stronghold opinion is divided.
“I’m a third-generation Fianna Fáil voter,” said group member Maggie Fagan. “They know how to run the country. I think we would be in an even worse state .”
Others say they have sympathy for Brian Cowen, given the circumstances he inherited. “As far as I’m concerned Brian Cowen walked straight into it,” said Pat McDermott from Pearse Street. “The damage was done when Bertie was there.”
But is Ahern still popular in this former heartland? “He was until he did the dirty,” said Bridie Byrne from Rutland Place. “He knew what he’d done and he moved on . . . The Fianna Fáil vote is finished for us now. They’re good promisers but bad fulfillers.”
Across the country in Ballina, Co Mayo, Loretta Clarke has entered the election race as an Independent candidate at the age of 75. Ms Clarke said the concerns of older people were poorly represented nationally and that she would like to see a TD representing the State’s ageing population in every constituency.
Eamon Timmins of Age Action said plans for the care of older people have not been a feature of the campaign and that an examination of manifestos shows some comments made publicly did not feature in the documents.
Friends of the Elderly spokesman Dermot Kirwan said those engaging with the charity are concerned about further “stealthy cuts” to care packages, grants, pensions and transport.
However, he said the single greatest concern emerging was that “history is repeating itself” and people who said goodbye to emigrating friends and relatives in the 1950s and 1980s are being forced to do it all over again.
Back in Dublin, Seán Whelan (79), a Friends of the Elderly volunteer and retired aircraft maintenance worker from Kells, Co Meath, said emigration and the kind of future that would be on offer to his grandchildren were his primary electoral concerns.
A long-time Labour supporter, Mr Whelan said that regardless of who formed it, the next government faced a difficult task. “I can’t see any real improvement in the next five years and I don’t see us getting back to where we were before the economy was mismanaged,” he said.
