Mr. John-Mark McCafferty:

I will speak on some of the other questions raised. We worked with Deputy Ó Cuív over the years in his various Departments. On rural public transport, I agree with my colleagues that there are different ways to deal with this. It requires particular consideration by the various players, both statutory and voluntary. The Irish Cancer Society has transport services. We fund people to assist them to get to hospital and health appointments. The local social welfare representatives, formerly the community welfare officers, CWOs, help, but that is discretionary so it depends on the discretion. We must think innovatively. The dial-a-ride approach might be a way to go. The existing rural transport schemes and how they interface with the broader network of buses and trains should be considered.

In terms of poverty faced by families, generally our experience is that the vast majority of our financial assistance is to working age families, whereas our visitation and social connection work is very much with older people and people living alone. Not all people who feel isolated are older people, although many are. Many lone parents feel incredibly isolated. That is an experience we learned from in two pieces of research we carried out in recent years. One was on older people. In some ways many older people have huge resilience and many assets, but social isolation is a big issue. Then there is the isolation and mental health challenges facing lone parents in both urban and rural areas. I mentioned some of the headline areas of expenditure for families in rural areas. The car, related insurance and energy are more expensive than in urban areas, and to some extent food, clothing and household expenditure is also important.

That brings me to where that information was derived from and the question the Chairman asked. The Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice has a comprehensive set of figures for almost every household type one can conceive of. In fact, the partnership has an online calculator where one can compare expenditure types for a given household in an urban or rural area with the income that it might have. If one has a particular income, such as social welfare, child benefit or various payments coming into the household, one can enter it into the calculator and see to what extent one is in surplus or deficit. I direct the committee to that online resource. It is very useful and it has been funded by the Department of Social Protection.

With regard to the wider response to isolation and loneliness, it is not purely a statutory response. In fact, the more deeply qualitative measures are probably in the one-to-one interactions we have in the community and in the efforts we provide. It is important to note that since 2009 there have been huge cuts to community development and related services and they have not been replaced or rejuvenated since the upturn. Part of the reason for that is that there is no voice, because many of those community centres or community services are gone so there is nobody to speak up for them. That is a huge loss.

It is hard to quantify that loss because they are simply not there anymore and we do not have a representative groundswell of opinion that will push for it. However, initiatives like bingo and events that take place at a parish level and in community centres work well. We have several resource centres and those involved do great work on intergenerational projects. I have in mind a project in Galway. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul visitation is a way to combat loneliness and isolation. The men's shed movement is another example. It is somewhat like the situation of rural transport. I reckon one element of the work of the committee should involve looking at isolation and loneliness and community connections. There are numerous community connections and considerable levels of voluntary activity in Ireland compared with other countries. Perhaps the challenge is more about co-ordinating the various statutory and voluntary players and mapping what is in place and who the various players are.

I wish to underline the issue of home help. It is absolutely crucial. Much of the time people are left with the choice of getting the house cleaned or getting a meal made, but they cannot have both. Home help services have suffered as a result of the cuts. The services have not been fully reinstated. It appears this is one of those situations where it is a question of resources and the provision of resources to fund the service. They need to be funded.

We would be concerned if there were to be certain changes, for example, increased costs regarding the seniors alert scheme. If the cost created a barrier to accessing the seniors alert scheme, it would be a major concern for us. It is a question of well-being and the sense of security that older people gain from the seniors alert scheme. I trust that addresses the question from Deputy Collins.

Deputy Healy-Rae mentioned a campaign that might be needed to assist us. It is called the annual appeal. It is currently in the media, where we can find the cheapest outlets for promoting it. We raise our funds at Christmas. We are heavily dependent on public generosity from mid-November through to Christmas. That generosity is critical for us to carry out visitation work, in other words, for our volunteer members to visit people in their homes, assist with certain areas of expenditure as well as being a listening ear and acting as a social contact. People prefer to be at home. Therefore, any local and social supports that can facilitate people ageing in their homes are preferable.