Introduction

By focusing on Ireland, this book has sought to offer a timely contribution to efforts to understand the impact of the economic crisis on ageing societies. Ireland has garnered considerable international attention in recent years because of the country's rapid economic demise from the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy (1994–2007) to a ‘bailout state’ requiring a large loan from its European partners in 2010 (Carney et al, 2014). Between 2008 and 2013, two successive governments implemented one of the most austere programmes of public spending seen in Europe since the Second World War (Nolan et al, 2014). As long-term challenges, such as demographic ageing, continue to evolve regardless of fluctuations in gross domestic product (GDP) and public spending, Ireland's experience presents a perfect opportunity to offer some insights on the experience of ageing through austerity. As older people appear to be ‘especially vulnerable to the charge of contributing to the economic crisis’ (Phillipson, 2013: 176), Ireland offers an important case study of austerity for other ageing societies implicated in the global economic crisis.

In this final chapter, we draw together the perspectives taken in the book and offer possible answers to some of the issues raised by our empirical work on Ireland. By shifting our gaze from the particular (ageing and social policy in Ireland) to the general (ageing and social policy in the 21st century), we seek to highlight what we see as critical issues for future policy in other contexts beyond Ireland. While the issues raised certainly apply to Ireland, most are not limited to the Irish context. For instance, the shifting relative position of older people in comparison with other cohorts through the austerity programme is not unique to Ireland. Neither is the tendency to make ageist assumptions that seek to place some of the burden of responsibility for indebtedness at the feet of older people (Carney et al, 2014). Likewise, throughout the book, the authors have recognised short-term funding retractions as minor shockwaves in what are longer-term intractable inequities and inefficiencies that have existed prior to the latest economic recession. Our critical gaze means that we see current challenges as arising from some underlying inequality, together with the use of ageist assumptions in the allocation of funding, which constructs ageing as an ideology of decline (Friedan, 1993).