Mr. Se?n Moynihan:

I will address the first issue quickly because Mr. Taylor has covered much of it. On the fair deal, in some ways there are certain drivers behind people going into nursing homes. There seems to be much emphasis on getting access to older people’s houses when they go into nursing homes, especially because, unfortunately, they tend to live only for around two more years when they enter one. Most people, on moving into a nursing home, have no desire to become a landlord. It creates an environment where people are put under stress or pressure, possibly from family, to rent out the home, especially because doing so has become more lucrative. In some ways, the houses will come back on stream. In that case, we should focus more on other housing options.

We have been working with the Department of Health and the HSE on this. We are an approved housing body. Ultimately, we have been championing housing with support as an alternative to nursing homes. I refer to 24-hour support on site, with a universal design. People would have their own front door and much more autonomy. The first example, funded by the Government, will open next June. It is a matter of creating scalable, replicable examples across the country to ease the pressure on nursing homes but also to create more choices for people.

On the second question, pre-pandemic, levels of loneliness were always high. We run the loneliness task force. Increasing levels of anxiety, mental illness and loneliness are evident across all age groups. As outlined in our opening statement, there are many commitments to a strategy on loneliness. Its implementation and resourcing are what we are looking for in many cases.

With regard to our funding, we have a mixture of funding sources. Since we are an approved housing body, we have income from housing, but, as with every other organisation, we fundraise. We use funds raised for innovations and to address gaps. Our model of operation – whether it entails housing with support or the provision of training, resources and technology for older people to other organisations – involves our trying to create pilots to fill gaps and then approaching the likes of the HSE and policymakers to scale those pilots that have been evaluated.