Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everything that has been stated. The convention is excellent and will be ground breaking, but we as a country must vindicate each and every one of those rights and, from a political perspective, invest responsibility in one Minister or Department to ensure that all agencies do so and all policies are proofed as regards older people.

The most important point that I can make is that approximately one in ten people in our society has cognition problems, for example, an inability to understand or communicate effectively because of disability or dementia. Dementia-friendly cities and towns are key to vindicating people's rights. A major problem is that, if one has dementia, one cannot vindicate one's rights because, by definition, one is not in control of one's own life. This significant issue must be addressed. We can write all of this down, print it in glossy booklets and circulate those, but unless someone is driving the agenda, nothing will happen.