From Ageism to Age Equality: Addressing the Challenges ...

Such an exercise, often quite simple, can quickly eliminate the potential for discrimination and cansecure best use of resources in terms of their capacity to be used by and benefit people of all ages.Changes to LegislationEquality legislation, with its prohibition of discrimination, helps this organisational change to takeplace. The Equality Legislation must go further, however, to make sure that this change happensconsistently and with an ambition for equality across all organisations. The Equality Authority hasrecommended a further development in the equality legislation to achieve this: the introduction of‘positive duties’ on employers and service providers to be proactive in promoting equality.A positive duty on the public sector, for example, could draw from the experience in Northern Irelandand require public sector bodies to have due regard to equality in carrying out their functions. Thisinvolves preparing equality schemes and conducting equality impact assessments on key policies.An example of a positive duty on the private sector could draw from the amended Equal TreatmentDirective of the EU. The Directive requires Member States to encourage employers to be planned andsystematic in their approach to gender equality. Organisations could be required to prepare equalitypolicies, conduct equality and diversity training, and produce equality action plans.Investment66Legislation and institutional change also need to be accompanied by new investment in older people.While older people should be in a position to benefit from all mainstream public expenditure,expenditure targeted at older people is also required to meet needs specific to older people and toaddress the legacy of past exclusion.We have identified three key areas for new investment in older people: income maintenance; healthand community services; and lifelong learning.Income MaintenanceWork, in terms of current work or the accumulation of pension rights while working, is a keydeterminant of income. In the past, choices were made which clearly preferred one generation toanother as older workers were encouraged to leave the workforce early. Intergenerational equityrequires that those who were displaced from the workforce should now benefit from an adequateincome. There is a heavy reliance among older people on social welfare pensions and there must bea particular focus on these in order to ensure adequate income. The recommendations of theNational Pensions Policy Initiative are important in linking such payments and their growth to apercentage of average industrial earnings.Health and Community ServicesCommunity services have a key role to play in ensuring the continuing presence and participation ofolder people in their local communities. These services are unevenly distributed around the countryand are inadequate to meet demands. In such a context we have recommended that communitycare services be underpinned by a clear legislative entitlement for older people alongside dedicatedfunding to ensure this entitlement is delivered. This would cover home help services, night sittingservices, respite care, day care and social activity centres, social work services, and community anddomiciliary paramedical services.Conference Proceedings