Mr. Pat McLoughlin:

I will answer specifically as it relates to the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland. It is scary for us to provide 68% of all community dementia services. I do not think there is another sector where the Government and State are reliant to that extent on one organisation to provide services.

That organisation is paying its staff at 2010 rates. It has increased its fundraising by €1 million. We have ten minibuses which need to be replaced. We authorised one last week which had travelled 437,000 km and was 12 years old. These minibuses are to gather people in the community and bring them into centres. Approximately 80% of those get a maximum of one or two days' service. We have relied on the goodness of fundraising, especially corporate fundraisers, with companies giving us money. We have not been able to pay our staff what we should be paying. We are competing with the HSE. Our fleet is in difficulty. None of the €3 million that we earn will have been achieved by six months because one cannot go out after Christmas to start fundraising again. All of our fundraising is late in the year, from Tea Day to Memory Ribbon Day. It means money is being spent without us knowing whether it will actually come in. We have depleted our reserves to keep going for the State. We cannot do that any more.

That does not address what it is like for an Alzheimer's patient to be in an emergency department in the country at the minute, given what is going on. They are in a crowded, noisy environment with poor signposting etc. People with Alzheimer's on waiting lists for hip operations and cataracts cannot access our day services because there is no point in having somebody with difficulties of that nature trying to attend a day service. It has become extremely difficult to paint that picture in the public arena with the system of funding we have. We are seriously underfunded as a sector. We do not want to provide any more services. At this stage, we would prefer to say that we should de-risk the situation. We cannot provide. We would welcome the HSE providing in the counties in which we have no service. We have no wish to be the top provider. We are advocating on behalf of all people with dementia. Who provides the care is a separate issue.