‘Retirement groups have been patient... they must now be let meet indoors’
GROUPS representing older people are demanding to know when Covid restrictions will be lifted to allow them to meet indoors again.
Active Retirement Ireland, which has a national membership of over 24,500 people and over 550 local associations, said its fully vaccinated members are frustrated that they are not being given the same clarity as other cohorts of society.
ARI president, Anne Drury, explained: ‘We know schools are going back in September, we know when people can go back to their offices, but older people are not being included on this roadmap, and we seem to be no closer to going forward.
‘This is really dragging on now, even after most of us have been double vaccinated.’
Ms Drury said her members had been compliant with the Covid restrictions since the pandemic first hit last March.
‘We haven’t been able to do some of our activities since then, but we have done what we can outdoors. However, autumn is now coming, and winter, and we need to move indoors.’
She said such groups included bridge, art classes, physical exercise, bowls and book clubs.
‘These activities play a huge role in people’s lives, both for our physical and psychological health, to stave off loneliness and isolation,’ she added.
Matthew Dowling, secretary of the Retired Active Men’s Social in Newcastle, Co. Dublin, said its 60 members had done what they could to keep spirits high during the pandemic, but that they were keen for guidelines as to what will be allowed over the next few months.
The 76-year-old retired chef said all the RAMS were fully vaccinated, but they were not yet permitted to meet inside.
Since lockdown, he said their singing group, RAMS in Rhythm, had been out fundraising for St Vincent de Paul ‘to keep ourselves occupied’.
However, he said that a tea and coffee buffet service the group had offered its most elderly members was now under threat by the latest restrictions.
‘We need to be able to get up and running properly, to give each other support. I was ageing before Covid – and we’re not getting any younger,’ he said.
Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, told the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk this week that social clubs and active retirement groups for older people should be permitted to meet indoors from next month.
‘I think that because we are in a situation where we almost have 99pc of our older people vaccinated, the time has now come that the active retirement groups, the men’s sheds, that they can now open. But we will do it in a safe, sustainable way,’ Ms Butler added.
‘Most have been fully vaccinated’