Mr. Pat McLoughlin:

Yes. We are also heavily reliant on volunteers in our service. That is the reality of what we face. We rely on 19 branches in 15 counties. That means our cost of fundraising is much lower than for many other organisations. We had 1,000 people collecting for us on Memory Ribbon Day last week. They were all providing voluntary services for us. Many of those are staff of different companies, school kids etc., who came out on a winter day and fundraised for us. We get huge support from the public and corporate Ireland but there does not seem to be an appreciation of the seriousness of dementia in the country and that carers are under serious pressure. Some 10% of persons with dementia are under 65 and 11 more people will be diagnosed today. At least one of those will be under 65 and there is no service for that person. It is an extremely difficult situation. The Alzheimer's Society of Ireland would welcome discussions with the committee on dementia and Alzheimer's because we are not mentioned in Sláintecare. Our submissions are mentioned but dementia is not. We are concerned that if we are not mentioned and that bus is leaving the station, we may have missed ten years in getting it to be a priority on the political agenda.