Mr. Maurice O'Connell:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to respond. I am familiar with the project in Kinsale. It is one of four collaborative projects, with others based in the west, in Dublin and in Tipperary. The project in Kinsale is exciting for a number of reasons. It will examine more effective ways of responding to people with dementia in their homes. For the first time, general practitioners are leading a community project that will engage with the voluntary and statutory sectors in terms of the HSE linking with the psychiatry of old age service and a number of voluntary organisations, including the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, to look at different approaches to maintaining people in their homes. One of the challenges in the country at this point with regard to the care of people with dementia is that they are hidden. The family carers are the dominant minders of the condition and the investment, in acute care, long-term care and community care, has left carers and people with dementia isolated.

The opportunity to respond in the earlier stages of dementia and to face the trajectory of dementia is lost because of late diagnosis. I welcome the fact that the Kinsale project is focusing on earlier intervention which will include getting an earlier diagnosis and allowing early intervention and supports. We have a great opportunity to use this platform to develop a national dementia strategy by 2013, which the Government is committed to, in order to look at the ways we can implement innovative and relatively cost effective ways of maintaining people in their own homes.