Wicklow County Council and Wicklow OPC meet every two months to discuss issues like: Transport, Driving Licences, G.P. Appointments etc.
We had our OPC AGM in November 2024 in the Arklow Bay Hotel, over 200 people turned up to the event. Minister Stephen Donnelly spoke at the event along with Cathairleach Paul O`Brien. We had speakers from Bank of Ireland who spoke to the attendees in relation to Bank Fraud. It was a very informative presentation.
Myself and the OPC ran Roadshows in all of our five Municipal Districts. The programme also took part in the Connecting Communitites Roadshow. This involved people from the HSE, An Garda Siochana, Healthy Age Friendly Homes and Age Friendly . On the day we handed out leaflets and merchandise to the public informing them of what is available to them and where to avail of it.
Wicklow Train Station has been nominated to become the first Age Friendly Train Station in the County of Wicklow. I organised a walkability in October 2024 which included people from the OPC, Irish Wheelchair Association, Wicklow County Council and members of the public. We met in County Hall where I gave the participants a toolkit and explained to them what it involved. We walked up to the Train Station and identified various issues with the footpath , road and surrounding area . We went into the Train Station where numerous issues were identified.
Once the walkability was complete, we went back to County Hall to have a brief discussion on our findings. Declan put the report together and a draft was sent to myself and Emmett Cotter. Next step is to finalise the Report and commence works on the train station.
I organised Information Clinics in Arklow and Wicklow along with our Healthy Age Friendly Homes Co-Ordinator. In this session we explained to the public what grants are available to them to keep them living safely in their homes for longer. We also gave out some merchandise to anyone that was at the information session.