Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. I am sorry I missed most of the presentation. I never knew what dementia was until several years ago when my mother went into a nursing home and I realised some of the people there were suffering from Alzheimer's disease. I did not realise they needed special care and often wondered what we could do to help them. I always thought dementia was part of the aging process and that the older one became the more likely it was that one would suffer from it. Only when I examined the statistics and read Ms Leonard's report did I realise that 4,000 people under the age of 65 suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which is very alarming.

As a young person, how can one identify dementia? We all suffer from memory loss at some stage. Communication, functional abilities and behaviour are also mentioned. Behaviour is probably the most common way dementia is discovered. We need much more care, especially in our general hospitals and residential care. My mother was old and was in a nursing home because she was coming to the end of her life. I saw people who needed more than somebody putting them in a wheelchair, taking them to a dining room and feeding them and doing the normal things. Many of them had behaviour problems and it took two or three people to look after them. I am an advocate of people staying at home. I often say if anything happened to my wife or me I hope we would look after each other, and I hope my children look after me. The statistics are shocking. Some 48,000 people are suffering from dementia and, as the presentation stated, by 2041 the figure may have reached 132,000.

We are very lucky. I come from Dundalk. We got a bad beating last week in Thurles. I am sure Professor O'Shea was there, and he had his own problems. There is a centre in Dundalk called the Birches. The amount of work the people there do is second to none, however they find it very difficult to get money to keep them going and they depend on charity. We will have to push harder on dementia and let people know it can affect young people as well as old people. The presentation was excellent. If the committee can help the witnesses in any way, they need only ask.