Member's statement: Older People's Care

Member's statement by Mr Daniel McCrossan on 12 January 2026.

MLA

Mr Daniel McCrossan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

12 January 2026

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Older People's Care

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5311214

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Before I begin my Member's statement, I welcome Mr Wilson to the House. I congratulate him on his appointment to the Assembly and wish him well in the time ahead. On behalf of the SDLP, I also thank William Irwin for his many years of dedicated service. We wish him a long and happy retirement with his family. This afternoon, I will focus on older people's care. We have an older population that is growing and is expected to continue to grow over the coming decade. Older people built the society that we live in. They worked, paid their taxes, raised families and held communities together through some of the most difficult and divided years this place has known. Yet, today, too many of our older people feel abandoned by a system that the Northern Ireland Executive have failed to properly plan for, fund or reform. Today, 12% of our older population live in relative poverty, and 9% of pensioners live in absolute poverty. Those numbers, which are in the thousands, are entirely unacceptable. It is also reported that 18% to 23% of our older population suffer from loneliness and that 80,000 people in Northern Ireland over the age of 65 live alone. Huge challenges face our older population, which, as I said, is growing while the services that older people rely on are shrinking. That is not an accident; it is the result of years of drift, delay and, unfortunately, political inaction. Access to health services is becoming harder, not easier, and getting a GP appointment often feels like winning the lottery. Hospital waiting lists are among the worst in western Europe, and older people pay the price first and have the longest waits. Community services that once allowed older people to live independently have been steadily stripped back. Preventative care has been hollowed out, leaving families to cope alone and forcing people into crisis before help appears. That is not a joined-up health and social care system but one that reacts too late and costs more in the long run to repair. For many older people, the cost-of-living crisis has been relentless, because their fixed incomes simply do not stretch to cover soaring energy bills, the rising cost of food and increasing costs generally. People who planned carefully and lived responsibly now worry about whether they can heat their homes or make ends meet. The Executive have talked a great deal about protecting the vulnerable in our society, but, unfortunately, the numbers do not add up. There is a great injustice in how we fund care. People who worked all their life, paid into the system and saved for the future find themselves facing the loss of their home and life savings when residential care becomes necessary and unavoidable, particularly given that they cannot get that care in their own home when and if they need it. We need to step up, stand up and speak up for our older population. The Assembly needs to recognise that none of us will get out of this: it affects our grandparents and our parents, and, unfortunately, it will eventually affect everyone in the House.

524 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:13 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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