Mobiles for Crumblies - the best way forward?

The Sweeper

My parents (who refer to themselves as 'the crumblies' and think it's hilarious) are in their seventies and the limit of their technical ability is the TV remote control.

They have expressed an interest in getting my dad a mobile phone - he's more active than my mother, and so ends up out and about more than she does, and is forever forgetting things etc., so they want some form of contact while he's out and she's home.

My brother's got a samsung clamshell phone that he's going to give them, because it answers on opening and hangs up on closing and that mechanism is more user-friendly than buttons (because my dad just cannot do buttons).

Basically, they want to put a Pay as You Go SIM into that phone, because they're not interested in having a contract, and the phone will mainly be for emergencies. Thing is, I don't want them ripped off by some salesman in a mobile phone warehouse that'll see an easy sale because they're old and clueless. I don't live in Ireland so I've no idea what providers are even in the market any more, so if anyone can help with the following questions, that'd be cool....

1. Who's the best provider for Pay as You Go rates?
2. Will they sell a SIM card for Pay as You Go for cheap, and if so, about how much?
3. What's the 'lifespan' on credit now, e.g. how long can you make calls before it 'expires' (seeing as this is supposed to be an emergencies-only phone) and you have to top up again?
4. Who's got the most user-friendly top-up procedure? If I could top up for them from the UK I would!
5. Anybody got any other input that might help?

God I wish they did duplo-mobiles that had "answer" and "hang up" and ten number buttons and that was it...

Any help appreciated!

Cutie18Ireland

meteor are the best for rates 20c a min 24/7

yes and they are 10 euro

no expiry whereas vodafone have a 30 day expiry

they all have the same- in the shop/ online/ phone/ bank machine

vodafone over here have new phones out called the simply range u can find them on vodafone.ie they are literally just made for calls and texts, they have bigger than usual buttons so ppl can see them better and all info about them is on the website!!

liamskater

yeah Sagem s1 and s2 or something

byte

Link:
http://www.vodafone.ie/onlinestore/product.jsp?cat=ftc-phones&productId=17384

The VS1 is silver, the VS2 is black. AFAIK, that's the only differences. €119 with SIM, and €80 call credit if registered online.