Age Friendly Fingal

Who/What is Age Friendly Fingal?

Age Friendly Fingal is affiliated to the Age Friendly Ireland Programme that supports cities, counties and towns across our country to prepare for the rapid ageing of our population by paying increased attention to the environmental, economic and social factors that influence the health and well-being of older adults. Age-friendly programmes work to provide walkable streets, housing and transportation options, access to key services and opportunities for older people to participate in community activities. By doing so, these communities are better equipped to become great places, and where appropriate lifelong homes are available, for people of all ages.

AnnMarie Farrelly, Chief Executive Fingal County Council & Louise Edmonds, Age Friendly Fingal Programme Manager

Ireland is ageing. Census 2016 counted more than 637,000 people aged 65 years or older, an increase of more than 19% over the last five years, and now representing 13.4% of the population. By 2026 there will be 1.15 million people in Ireland aged 60 or over, representing almost one out of every four people and Age Friendly Fingal are working on initiatives to address the needs of the growing population within Fingal.

The Age Friendly Cities and Counties Programme provides a means to operationalise with a national infrastructure to bring key actors – City and County Councils, the Health Service Executive, An Garda Síochána, NGO’s, business and third level sector representatives – together at local authority level to plan collaboratively, to share resources and to streamline their work, towards creating an inclusive, equitable society in which older people can live full, active, valued and healthy lives.

Since 2009, an Age Friendly Programme has been developed in each of the 31 local authority areas following application of a consistent methodology and governance structure which supports cities and counties to be more inclusive of older people by addressing their expressed concerns and interests under the eight defined World Health Organization (WHO) programme headings.

In Fingal this programme is under the leadership of our Chief Executive Ann Marie Farrelly with programme manager Louise Edmonds and support staff Janette Scott and Rosanne Martin.