An age friendly housing technical advisor has been appointed for all local authorities including Clare County Council.
Niamh Madden is the Age Friendly Housing Technical Advisor in Clare County Council. She is expected to provide specialist advice to the authority itself, to private sector interests who want to get involved in providing age-friendly housing, and to individuals from the public generally.
Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Peter Burke TD (FG) officially launched the 31 local authority-based Age Friendly Technical Advisors.
As part of the Programme for Government (PfG), an agreed approach to support older people to live in their own homes and communities with dignity and independence, for as long as possible was reached. The programme’s ambition is to enable everyone, of all ages, to live longer healthier lives in their own homes and communities.
This vision is central to the overarching principles of the World Health Organisation’s Age Friendly Framework and core to the joint departmental housing options for its Ageing Population Policy. The aim of the housing policy is to ensure that older people will have greater choice by developing a range of housing options that are suited to their needs, so they can plan ahead and, insofar as possible, choose the right home for them.
Age Friendly Ireland has supported the development and implementation of the policy document. In response to Action 4.13, which states that “local authorities will identify and assign an individual on their housing teams to work with older people in terms of sourcing appropriate accommodation”, all local authorities have assigned a staff member to undertake this role so that this resource is available in all of the 31 local authorities across the country.
