Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We tend to think of Ireland as a very friendly place that is dominated by community spirit. Additionally, volunteerism is very high in Ireland. What is shocking is that Ireland is actually the loneliest place in Europe. The official figures show that 20% of Irish people reported feeling lonely most or all of the time. This is the highest level in the European Union, where the average is only 13%. Even the figure of 13% is fairly shocking and in fact the European Union wants to take action on this. Indeed, the World Health Organization announced it has a commission on social connection to address it and it calls this a “pressing health threat”.

I am delighted the Minister of State is here today. This is one of his first engagements as a Minister of State. He was with me earlier today when we discussed the issue of midwives and nurses in the audiovisual room.

When it comes to healthcare, I think everybody in Ireland cares about how other people are treated. Whether it is ourselves feeling lonely or somebody who we love, we cannot do it alone. I would hazard a guess – but it is only a guess – that the reason we have such high levels of loneliness is because we have relied on families to do what the State should be stepping up to do, and that is put in place a support mechanism around our people. It should not be left to individual families who are pressed, have financial concerns and have everyday life to get through. It is probably particularly and specifically because we have had a strong community spirit that we have now found ourselves in a situation where we have had underinvestment in social connection. This runs right the way through from preschool-aged children to older age. I know my colleagues will address some of the specific areas with regard to some of those age groups.

From my background in a farming family, I know only too well that in particular parts of our country we have very high levels of suicide, and those are in our most rural areas. I wish to mention specifically people living in rural areas. I now live in a very urban area and you see people around you who are lonely. I was talking to my dad the other day and he said that before the pandemic, you would go into the pub and see a middle-aged man sitting at the bar. You would go up, sit down and have a chat. Those people are not there now. It is not because they do not exist in society but they are not finding that to be the outlet it once was. Therefore, we need to find other things.

I will hand over to one of my colleagues but I wanted to mention some of the things we are calling for in this which go right from the lowest level of democracy to the highest. I call on the Government to allocate a Minister to have specific responsibility for combating loneliness; to have every local authority prepare a local strategy to combat loneliness through the use of libraries, public buildings, sports partnerships and public participation networks; and to measure loneliness annually as part of the well-being indicators. It is the Green Party that has pushed for well-being indicators. We do not want to wait five to six years when this is such a threat to public health. We in the Green Party have been putting in place measures, particularly in respect of transport. In my own constituency in Galway, we have seen a massive uptake in people using rural bus services, particularly people who live alone and can get to their local town now but would never have been able to before.

There is much to discuss here. I am delighted the Minister of State is here to talk about it. I will hand over to my colleague, Senator Róisín Garvey, who I think will have some important insights as she comes from a rural area.