Mr. Maurice O'Connell:

This figure is based on research carried out by my colleagues in Trinity College Dublin. It is consistent in an annual cost of dementia care. It is broken down in a way that is similar to how the cost of care in Ireland is broken down. The cost of care in Ireland for people with dementia is estimated at €1.69 billion. Some 48% of this is attributed to informal family carers, which is not an actual cost but is related to burden. Some 43% of the €1.69 billion is accounted for by residential and hospital care and only 9% is attributed to investment in community care. Using that ratio results in the €40,000 per annum. Obviously I believe that a future vision of dementia care should enable greater flexibility in being able to recognise the burden of care visited on family carers. In order to continue maintaining people in their own homes effectively, that 9% invested by the health services should be increased by effective earlier interventions that will enable us to save costs by maintaining people for longer in their own homes and therefore effect a lesser cost than would apply if they were in long-term care. We would have had a number of proposals on that and would be willing to explore the options.