Ms Audry Deane:

That is an excellent question to round up the discussion and focus our minds because there are no easy answers to this. Researching and then collectively as a society deciding on the funding model will be absolutely critical, which is why it nests under Sláintecare. We need to take a good hard adult look at how we fund the provision of care in this country. Will it be from general taxation or a blend of social insurance? Not dodging the point, but it is early days. Our colleagues at Sage Advocacy are doing sterling work on the deep technical aspects of this and we are feeding it into the Department. I do not think we can answer the question today. Age Action is the largest body representing ageing people in the country and we ask that all elected members of both Houses who are here in front of us do their part to ensure the dialogue and societal conversation that must be held in this country on how we will fund this - it will not be easy - is adult, respectful and sustainable.