Mr. Eamon Timmins:

We have not come across too many cases of older people abandoning their landline telephones but there is the occasional case of people no longer using them. There is the option of using a mobile telephone pendant alarm system but it is not suitable for everyone as it depends on location. I have spoken to the company running this service and it assures me it will check the mobile telephone signal at a person’s home three times. Our concern, however, is that part of a person's property could have signal shadows. If that is where someone has a fall, then the pendant alarm might not work. It is not such a straightforward switch to a mobile system.

Before the change to the home adaptation grant in January, our problem was the scheme was never sufficiently funded. As the waiting lists were so long, several local authorities stopped taking applications as there was no point allowing people continue to join a queue which was not moving. In our pre-budget submission, we call for substantial investment in the home adaptation scheme. If we cannot allow people to live independently in their homes by simply adapting them to meet their changing needs through lack of funding, the problem then is the knock-on effect this has with increased and more costly demands on the health services in areas such as home help, nursing homes and acute bed use.