Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. It is great to see a former colleague sitting in the Minister's chair. It gives us all hope. We were delighted to see his appointment. There is no better man than him to be in a public health role because I know of his deep commitment to public health through the work he has done to date. I wish him the very best of luck.

I commend my Green Party colleagues for tabling the motion. It is really important that we discuss loneliness. Senator Hoey outlined clearly the deep health impacts of loneliness. We speak of drug addiction, alcohol addiction and other harmful misuses of substances, such as smoking, but we are not having the same discussion about loneliness, even though it has very similar health impacts. There is its impact on cardiovascular health and brain health. During the pandemic, the isolation that people felt had a huge impact on their brain health and, oftentimes, their capabilities slipped. It was really drastic to see. We all know of people who went downhill and older people were far more susceptible to loneliness during the pandemic. That is really scary.

I want to touch on a couple of groups that have not really been mentioned here today. Lone parents are at risk of loneliness, particularly those who have children with special educational needs. They can find it very difficult to even get out of the house, take part in any activity in their community or take part in employment in the community. It can be very difficult. In many parts of the country, unfortunately, we do not have support services in place for lone parents and particularly lone parents of children with special educational needs. It can be very difficult. There is an impact on the lone parent, as well as the knock-on impact on the children in the family.

Another group is new mothers. We all know how overwhelming new motherhood can be. It can be a very lonely and vulnerable time in a woman's life. It is supposed to be the best time of your life but, for many people, it is actually the worst. They struggle with their mental health, loneliness and isolation. Unfortunately, I have seen it time and time again in my own area of north County Dublin, where we have a booming population. The public health nurses are under pressure. Part of their remit is to visit new mothers to check on things such as mental health struggles.The friendship and support that public health nurses give to new mothers is really important but because they are under-resourced and understaffed, they do not have the time to spend to chat with people. The Department should consider allocating more resources for public health nurses who serve young and old alike in the community.

Older women are at particular risk of loneliness. Women often outlive their husbands. They may be widowed at a relatively young age and find themselves living alone for the first time in their lives. It can be very hard for many of them to adjust to that. I am very glad to see the growth of women's sheds across the country. The ICA has existed as an organisation for many years. We have very active ICAs in north County Dublin, in Swords, Lusk and Balbriggan. They do great work bringing women together and organising outings. They provide friendship and support. I would like to see extra resources being allocated for groups like that. Mother and toddler groups play a huge role in combating loneliness in communities.

The message today is that communities need to be resourced to help those within the community. Community gardens are a great way of supporting communities. We have a fantastic one in Skerries called Floraville. It is just a pocket in off the street. It is not specifically for children; anybody can go in. It has benches allowing people to sit, have a cup of coffee and chat. There is space for people to walk around and for kids to run around. It is a welcoming space for all in the community and that should be replicated across the country. I wish the Minister of State the best of luck and I thank him for taking the time to come in and listen to us. We are all committed to combating loneliness.