Ms Margharita Solon:

Thar ceann ár mbord bainistíochta, is mór an onóir dúinn a bheith libh anseo inniu. Go raibh míle maith agaibh. We are honoured and proud to have Mr. Rowntree. He is a visionary. He talks not about processes but about people, about how processes serve people and people do not serve processes. As soon as he came to McAuley Place, he hit the ground running and he got exactly what it is we are about and what we want to do. I know he will take us to new heights. We are absolutely honoured and privileged to have him here.

Dr. Byrne made the really interesting statement that we are hearing an awful lot more about an ageing society and that by 2040 there will be so many people over the age of 65. In 2020, I will be 65. What do I want? This is about me and my ageing. This is about my one year old grandson - no one ever had a grandchild before me - and the kind of society I want for him and where I want my 30 year old kids to be. I want them to be in a place like McAuley Place where the arts connect us. It is not that the old ones are over there, the children are in the crèche over there, the disabled are over there and there is a programme going on here. We are a community and we all live together, and the commonality between all of us is our creativity, which is part of the aspiration of Creative Ireland. When I am 65, when I have a little more time, I want to learn how to arrange flowers like they do in the craft group in McAuley Place. I want the opportunity to publish my own poetry in a poetry book in McAuley Place. I want the opportunity to be in an arts project like the intergenerational community arts project that went on for over a year and brought carers, people with disabilities, people with learning challenges, unemployed people and everyone else all together. However, there were no labels or badges. The people connected because they were learning and doing something together. One lady who participated in this arts project had terminal cancer. She was living in McAuley Place. Within two weeks of her moving into McAuley Place, she halved her pain medication. Her condition was still bad, still deteriorating, but the arts, creativity and connection were releasing dopamine that was making her feel far better than any medical prescription could.

As Mr. Rowntree said, we want to develop our vision for this old building, this health-through-learning centre. People still look at us and say, "What?" and we say "health through learning". Likewise, people asked us why we were providing housing in the heart of the town for older people and said such housing is always on the periphery of the town. "Housing with intergenerational what?" they asked. "With intergenerational facilities," we replied. They asked us what we meant by a creative model rather than a medical model. Now they are coming from all over Ireland to see what it is we have done. I have absolutely no doubt but that when, not if, we get the funding to complete this health-through-learning centre, it will be another flagship not only for Ireland, but beyond Europe. Our health-through-learning centre will consist of a community lounge, just like a residents' lounge in a hotel. If one is from the community, one can be in the lounge. A label is not needed. It is not that one is unemployed, has mental health issues, has disabilities, is new to the town or is an asylum seeker. That does not matter. If one is from the town, one can go into the community lounge. One can go through the community lounge and out into an incredible urban woodland garden with a river running through it, where one can connect with the environment and with nature. It is an amazing space that makes one feel well.

Then one can go into the three creative making rooms, where we have activities such as woodturning, weaving, flower arranging and basket making. There are opportunities for people from NCAD to do this outreach with us, exactly the same thing Ms O'Neill Collins was talking about: repopulating areas. Naas has been devastated with ribbon development outside the town, but McAuley Place is bringing people back in. It will bring even more people back in so it has an economy of scale in itself. We are doing all that we are already doing with what we have. As Mr. Rowntree said, this is creating an even better hub in order that when, not if, we develop more houses, we do not need to replicate everything about McAuley Place. McAuley Place is the hub that connects to these other satellite communities that we have created, that are intergenerational, creative and artistic.