I welcome this debate today, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. I’d like to reiterate the fact of how proud I am that Wales was home to the world’s first older person’s commissioner. I think that was a great achievement and I think it was very forward-looking of the Welsh Government to establish this role. I think what it’s done has shown that it was the right decision.

I think the important developments that the current older people’s commissioner has brought about is really because, as the Minister said when she did her introduction, she is deeply rooted in listening to what older people are saying. She’s certainly been to my constituency to speak at meetings on two occasions, and when she described where she’d been in Wales—I mean, she is going across, back and forwards across Wales all the time, so I think she really does have a knowledge about what older people are feeling.

I do agree with a rights-based approach for older people, in the same way as we’ve developed it for children, and I am very pleased that there have been discussions with the Minister and with the First Minister about enshrining the rights of older people in law, because I do feel that, if older people’s rights are firmly enshrined in law, it will make public bodies think much more carefully when they make decisions that do affect older people, and there are a series of benchmarks to measure the lives that older people are living.

I want to talk briefly about the participation of older people in everyday life and the contributions they have to give. One of the United Nations principles for older persons, which were adopted in 1991, covers participation by older people in society and says:

‘Older persons should remain integrated in society, participate actively in the formulation and implementation of policies that directly affect their well-being and share their knowledge and skills with younger generations. ’

It’s already been mentioned here in the Chamber today about childcare, because the contribution of older people to childcare for their grandchildren, I think, cannot really be costed because we know it is so enormous. We know, in Wales, there is a huge amount of informal childcare, and that is to be absolutely applauded. I think there are other great experiences that older people are able to share with children in schools when they go into schools and try to help children learn to read. There are several examples of that happening in my constituency.

I do think society’s attitude is changing slowly. There have been, in the past, many arbitrary break-offs that mean that older people can’t go on working, whereas we know now there are many older people working past the age of 65—myself included. I think we also know that Government policy is changing. I’m sure you will have heard the call recently from the Justice Select Committee in Westminster to allow magistrates to carry on working past the current retirement age of 70. I think this call was made because of the shortage of magistrates, but extending magistrates’ time to 75 is absolutely sensible because of the contribution that they have to give. Personally, I would extend it even further. I know that, under the coalition Government, the plan was to raise jury service up to 75 as well.

So, I think that there are many areas where we are seeing a move towards not having these arbitrary cut-off points where people are forced to retire or forced to end something that they may be making a great contribution to. Of course, older people can make and do make a huge contribution to school governing bodies. Certainly, in my constituency, we have many older people who are on school governing bodies, contributing as they are on numerous public bodies in Wales and on health boards. I think it is very important that we do encourage older people to apply for these posts. I know we do make great efforts to ensure that we try to get people from minority and ethnic backgrounds to apply and also younger people, but the main bulk of people are usually in the ages up to 65 and I think we should make efforts to get older people to apply as well.

I want to finish by just talking very briefly about some of the older volunteers in my constituency who’ve made a huge impression on me because of their energy. When we were threatened with having a post office closure, who was on the streets campaigning? It was the older people. And we managed to keep a post office in Whitchurch through all this effort. I think I’ve mentioned in this Chamber already the 92-year-old great grandmother who’s leading the campaign for public toilets in Whitchurch. The last few Saturdays, she’s been with me on Whitchurch high street getting the signatures and no-one has refused. I think, when she asks them, nobody dares say no. So, that’s happening as well. And of course, I read in the press today about an 89-year-old person, a man, seeking employment. So, I think we’ve got to recognise the huge contribution that older people are making.