Ireland's ageing population should be viewed as an opportunity for society - not a burden, Richard Bruton has argued. 

In 2021, the CSO calculated the average man in Ireland could expect to live until they were 80.5 and for women it was 84.3. 

Those figures are expected to increase in the decades ahead and demand for healthcare and care will consequently increase as well.  

Fine Gael has produced a report on how to manage that trend and the party’s Policy Lab Vice Chairperson Richard Bruton said society should view it as a positive development. 

“Really, policy hasn’t kept pace with the new approaches that are needed to fulfil the potential of longer lives and really that’s what this is about,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“There are really an awful lot of dimensions where policy needs to change because we’re living longer. 

“I think, really, we believe you need to see living longer through a different lens because too often it’s seen as all about decline and burdens. 

“Whereas the reality it’s one of the great successes of humanity and we should treat it as an opportunity and put the policies in place.” 

An elderly couple sat in their living room.

Fine Gael said the Government should legislate for a Homecare Development Agency, with many elderly people keen to stay in their own homes for as long as possible. 

“The ERSI has indicated that we will probably need to double the amount of homecare hours available to deliver this,” Deputy Bruton said. 

“So, this is something that needs to be developed.

“Not only is it better for people to stay independent in their own home with the support of homecare but it is cheaper in the long run also. 

“We need also to make sure that the supports for family carers is much more flexible than it now is.” 

Driven from the centre

Deputy Bruton said policies to help the elderly should be coordinated directly from the Taoiseach’s office - given how many departments it involves. 

“I’ve been in Government and I’ve been active in both the Jobs Plan, the Action Plan for Jobs and the Climate Plan,” he said. 

“The only way we got that through and a coordinated response from the Government is placing the oversight in the Taoiseach’s Department. 

“So, people’s toes are held to the fire if they don’t move forward on the barriers… standing in the way of better policies for staying healthy, staying independent, staying connected.”

The number of people living past 100 is expected to quadruple between 2005 and 2030.

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Main image: An elderly woman and Richard Bruton.