REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE FINGLAS BRANCH OF THE SENIOR HELPLINE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE FINGLAS BRANCH OF THE SENIOR HELPLINE
Is mór an pleisiúr dom beith anseo i bhur measc inniu. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as ucht bhur bhfáilte chaoin.
Firstly let me say how delighted I am to join you here today and to launch the Finglas Senior Helpline Branch of the West Finglas Day Care Centre - I would like to thank Mary McGuire of the Northern Area Health Board and the members of the Senior Citizens' Parliament in Finglas for the kind invitation.
It’s only a little over three years since I had the pleasure of launching the first National Senior Helpline which was established in Summerhill Co .Meath and yet this latest development here in Finglas marks the 14th branch of the helpline, bearing testimony to its success and relevance to the community it serves. Of course that tremendous success could not and would not have been possible without the commitment and dedication of the volunteers, who work selflessly in the cause of others and I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the 14 committed volunteers from the Finglas Branch of the Senior Citizen’s Parliament who, I understand, have completed the necessary training programme and are now set to run the helpline. I wish to commend you and thank you for undertaking this very worthwhile challenge to provide a truly caring service for people in this area. You give of yourselves so willingly, not only in terms of your time but especially in terms of the courage it has taken to confront issues like bereavement, loss and loneliness, the very issues that many of these special caring people have had to deal with themselves.
You have embraced this role of volunteer with great enthusiasm and dedication and will no doubt succeed in making the Finglas helpline an invaluable resource for many years to come. I would like to especially pay tribute to Eddie Fitzgerald of the Senior Citizens' Parliament whom I understand has been an inspirational force in driving the project.
Society in Ireland has changed beyond recognition in recent years and these changes have probably been felt more by older people than most others in the community. Family structures are very different now and with increased demands on everyone’s time, many older people experience a sense of isolation. Some drift into aloneness and loneliness as friends and family have died or moved away. Ageing brings new challenges and with them new responsibilities for all of us as a caring society. This older generation knew days when there was no celtic tiger, and very little of anything else for that matter, and made many, many sacrifices to give the next generation a better start - education, security and real choices, choices that they themselves were denied. It was through their effort that the seeds were planted for this new Ireland we savour today, rid of the crippling blight of high unemployment, emigration and conflict between traditions. We have now a confident, prosperous Ireland, at peace and with a new hope where once there was little or none.
The introduction of this telephone Helpline is a wonderfully practical way of providing an important service to older people, offering them support and advice from their contemporaries whenever they need it. It will help people to remain healthy, happy and confident in their own homes, among their family, friends and community in the knowledge that help is only a phone call away. The Helpline is much more than an advice service, the volunteers will spend as much time listening and talking to the callers as they need.
To give time to someone lonely, sad or at odds with themselves is often what is wanted and needed most, and is a gift hugely underestimated in value, easily given and yet so often not forthcoming.
Older people have a wealth of knowledge, experience, wisdom and common sense which make them ideally qualified to offer the benefit of that life long learning and experience to helping others and what better way of doing this than by helping their peers. The Senior Citizens' Parliament is an organisation which has articulated and promoted the rights of older people in our society and recognises that our senior citizens have that vast reservoir of skills and experience. The Senior Helpline taps into this reservoir and I believe that this branch will prove its effectiveness as the other helplines have done. I look forward to hearing of its success.
As you may be aware, the United Nations General Assembly has declared this year as The International Year of Volunteers. There are many retired people already actively working in our communities as volunteers and we have a unique opportunity this year to promote and celebrate the valuable work undertaken by them, and most importantly to say thank you and well done to the volunteers who have worked so hard to bring about the Finglas Senior Helpline.
I would like to thank you all for your warm and generous welcome to me today and I wish you long-life, happiness and every success with the Helpline.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh. Gura fada buan sibh.