ALONE, the charity that supports older people, provided 22,300 supports across every county in Ireland during 2022, the highest number in the organisation's 45-year history.
Its annual report published today stated that its volunteers provided €2.5 million worth of support to older people last year.
A total of 994 older people were given a Christmas dinner in addition to the charity making 5,161 Christmas calls last year.
ALONE also reported an increase in the number of older people experiencing loneliness, along with unprecedented demand for help with paying energy bills.
CEO of ALONE Seán Moynihan said the charity is a "bell weather of those that are more marginalised" within the older population.
He told RTÉ's Morning Ireland: "There's 150,000 older people today helping with childcare, another 150,000 supporting other parts of their families, 50,000 of our carers and a lot of people are still working.
"But we're like a bellwether of what the needs of maybe the more marginalised or those who need support, whether it's access to health, whether it's combating loneliness, whether it's finance or transport."
He said that last winter ALONE intervened to a level of around €500,000.
Mr Moynihan said that while Government interventions and grant schemes were welcome, "in partnership with government departments and with all the utility companies, it's the first time we ever really had to enter a cold weather strategy around energy credits".
"A lot of people talk about fuel poverty. In fact, it's just poverty in some ways," he said.
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Mr Moynihan added that the reality is, especially for those on their own, if you live on the State pension and you have 40 years of contributions to get it, it still hovers just below the poverty line.
He said: "The reality is, any hit to the system and you're in trouble, and people had already made the cuts with inflation, had already made the cuts to changing their habits around food, changing their habits around socialising, cutting down on housing maintenance.
"But the problem is, especially for those over 75, energy is a public health issue. The point is, is you have to keep warm to keep well."
He added that while everybody has to be conscious of the energy they use "at the same time, we had to tell people to prioritise energy because that's where we have, unfortunately what's called excess winter deaths, where more people die because of the cold".
Need for 'progressive Budget' - Moynihan
In relation to a possible €12 increase in the State pension in the upcoming Budget, Mr Moynihan said there is a need to benchmark the pension, which was indicated in the Programme for Government.
"Government said they benchmarked to 34% the average industrial wage, we're around €50 below that. And those on the pension, especially those on their own, really can't cope with inflation, especially on the basket of goods that's rising the most.
"So, whether you're young, whether you're old, if you've access to health, finance or housing, really what we need is to keep a progressive Budget."
Mr Moynihan highlighted that loneliness is still a major factor for many older people in Ireland.
He said ALONE has been campaigning across the whole of the age groups to get a policy, practice and a strategy around combating loneliness.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic made loneliness visible, adding: "All of a sudden people had the language to realise that the reason their health was being compromised, the reason their mental health was being compromised was actually loneliness because they could understand what was going on and they could name that."
Despite having 4,500 volunteers, he said ALONE needs to recruit and train 200-300 more every month but "with the levels of loneliness, we really need to double that again".
He said the charity is "really hopeful via the loneliness task force" that a plan will come in place and for some funding in the Budget "so we can get after the scourge that is so painful for so many".
