Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the establishment of the National Data Analytic Centre which will be announced later today by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton. It is the combined effort of four universities, namely, Dublin City University, National University of Ireland, Galway, University College Cork and University College Dublin - to carry out statistical research in a commercial sense. We have a superb tradition in this field. Dr. Roy Geary, the first chief executive of the Central Statistics Office, an international figure, and his successor, Professor Michael McCarthy, became the president of University College Cork. This is a very welcome development.

I welcome the former British Prime Minister, John Major, to Ireland. I gather he gave an inspiring lecture in Iveagh House last night. I acknowledge his role in the peace process and express my best wishes to Albert Reynolds, who was indisposed and could not be present, who also played a major role. During the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and well into the 1960s the two jurisdictions in Ireland rarely spoke to each other. That was the backdrop that Albert Reynolds and John Major had to overcome. Some remarkable secretaries of state for Northern Ireland, such as Willie Whitelaw, Peter Brooke and Patrick Mayhew had to overcome that. We must keep that Northern Ireland connection alive. I note that the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement is meeting today. Perhaps the Leader might consider a debate on Northern Ireland with Northern Ireland participation in the new year. The special request from the former British Prime Minister, John Major, was that we remember also, for their centenary, the 500,000 Irish people who fought in the First World War, including 50,000 who were killed. I think we should keep that request in mind.

At the initiative of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, the focus of the G8 summit currently being held in London, was on dementia, which is a major problem in ageing societies. Professor Des O'Neill, Trinity College, Dublin, speaking on the radio this morning referred to physiotherapy of the mind. This condition can be treated. I have heard cases of music getting people out of being locked in dementia. I have also heard of an Irish speaker who does not participate in the world but if he hears another Irish speaker he will come back. That is an issue we might also debate in the new year - the new ways of treating dementia and mental illness. One thing about growing old is that we get plenty of notice. This is an area in which it appears there are exciting and interesting policy initiatives which could make a difference. I ask the Leader if we might discuss those improvements resulting from the G8 summit and from research being done in Ireland on the ways in which dementia can be treated. Left untreated, with a growing number of old people, it would become a serious problem.