A quiet evening took a horrifying turn for 93-year-old Johnny Carroll when men raided his house searching for money.

Carroll, who lives alone in Balrath in County Meath, was restrained and beaten by the raiders, who were armed with spanners.

He described the ordeal to Newstalk Breakfast's reporter Conor Galvin.

At around 8.15pm, the men entered Carroll's house, where he has lived for 70 years, while he was sitting drinking a cup of tea. One switched off the lights, and then demanded money from him.

"We'll have to get money. We're not going until we get it," he said.

Two men then held him while another struck him. "I still have the marks on my hands," said Carroll.

They stole €400 from Carroll, which he had received the previous evening and had not yet deposited in the bank.

His two sons one present at the time. Their phones were taken, a well as €100 in cash, though one son was able to hide an amount of cash in his boot.

The victims were then locked in a room - Carroll says the criminals dragged him into it - where they remained until one of the sons escaped through a window and released them.

When they emerged, they saw the house had been turned upside-down, with all the drawers emptied in the search for valuables.

"They couldn't do more harm than they did," Carroll said.

The attack left him deeply shaken and unable to sleep:

Justin Moran from Age Action Ireland also appeared on Newstalk Breakfast, calling attacks like that on Carroll "horrific."

He said older people are less likely to be victims of crime, but are more likely to be seriously hurt or psychologically damage when they are.

Moran spoke about how the senior alert scheme, which used a small pendant alarm worn on one's person, has seen a drop-off as many older people can no longer afford it.

He said a significant number of calls made to his organisation come from rural areas, particularly "parts of rural Ireland where local garda stations may have been closed down in recent years."

In recent years dedicated officers with a responsibility of older people have been introduced in all Dublin stations, a move Moran would like to see expanded beyond the capital.

He also stressed the need for strong local communities to make victims feel safe and to spot strange vehicles or people which might be scouting an area for a robbery.