A Social Report for Ireland Volume II - the NESC Website

older people 221Intergenerational SolidarityThe European Commission recently carried out a Eurobarometer survey onintergenerational solidarity (European Commission, 2009). One of the questionsasked was whether people agreed that the government was doing a good job inpromoting a better understanding between the young and the old. The resultsfor selected EU countries are presented in Figure 8.40. Across the EU27 justover a quarter of the respondents agreed (27 per cent) that their governmentwas doing a good job promoting intergenerational understanding (8 per centstrongly agreeing and 19 per cent somewhat agreeing). The proportion ofrespondents holding this view in Ireland was much lower with less than 1 in 5 (19per cent) agreeing that the government was doing a good job promoting a betterunderstanding between the young and the old (4 per cent strongly agreeingand 15 per cent somewhat agreeing). This is one of the lowest levels ofagreement across the EU. Only in Lithuania and Belgium did more than halfof respondents agree that their government was doing well in promotingintergenerational understanding.Figure 8.40 ‘The Government is Doing a Good Job in Promoting a BetterUnderstanding Between the Young and the Old’, Selected EUCountries, 2009Latvia1412 32 39 12IrelandPolandFranceFinlandGermanyGreeceUKItalyDenmarkEU27AustriaSwedenCzech RepSpainPortugalNetherlandsBelgiumLithuania4 15 31 45 45 14 36 34 115 16 39 30 104 18 37 32 96 16 50 21 810 13 19 51 84 20 37 32 86 20 29 29 178 18 31 34 98 19 35 29 109 19 41 24 77 22 26 29 178 21 37 26 810 26 31 24 1020 17 22 30 1021 28 26 18 725 25 20 20 1026 29 17 15 13020 40 60 80 100%p Strongly Agree p Somewhat Agree p Somewhat Disagree p Strongly Disagree p DK/NASource European Commission, Flash Eurobarometer, 2009.