Mr. John O'Mahony:

I have been involved in Drogheda with dementia care. It is very specialist housing. A professor came from Britain who has highly developed ideas about housing. In particular, dementia is almost like a separate housing typology requiring minute detailed issues such as carpet colours and the nature of lighting. It almost separates it completely from traditional housing. Does this mean we cannot adapt traditional housing? We can do so but the care issues are very much about communal care. When a person reaches the stage where the dementia is taking hold, he or she would be suitable for very specialist housing. It is important to emphasise just how specialist it is. People like us must be well educated on the design issues associated with that.

It is very specialist care and very specialist design.