Professor Colette Cowan:

I will defer to my colleague. From population planning, we know that we have an ageing population in the mid-west region. We have some of the highest numbers of people over the age of 85, which is a great thing. We also have issues regarding social deprivation and the care of people living in our city area. We have a very affluent society too. There are demands on the health service for that. We also have a GP service with very good GPs who are working very long hours. They can see the demand. We see it in our emergency department every day. It is wonderful to see people in their 90s and older coming into hospital for treatment. It is also wonderful that they are living longer, but there really is a huge surge in persons over 75 and those over 85 requiring our services. They are quite frail. Perhaps Professor Lenehan will add to that.