Dr. Tara Byrne:

I think it is important to answer the questions that the Deputy posed, the first of which was about whether we had spoken to the HSE. The HSE is well aware of the situation in relation to the arts in nursing homes, as well as the arts in health. Earlier, my colleague, Ms Hope, mentioned an agreement that exists, but that does not seem to be communicated very well or does not seem to have moved on. It is called "Renew". This is the name of the agreement. They very well aware of the situation.

The second point was in relation to the kind of activities that are provided. There are activities. The issue is that they are arguably not all necessarily meaningful activities. Obviously, this is a very subjective thing, so bingo, mass, games etc., are regular activities. A lot of people really like that, and that is important for those people. Yet, what is not provided regularly are arts activities, or they are provided by people who are not trained and are not artists. It is therefore arguably not really an arts activity in the sense that we would understand it, which is a professional arts activity.

We work with Nursing Homes Ireland on an initiative called National Arts in Nursing Homes Day. We started it two years ago, and it has been a huge incentive for nursing homes to do it. Yet, they are doing it from a very low budgetary base, which brings me to the Deputy's third question. Because there is a private or public-private model of nursing homes in Ireland, it is obviously complicated by what their budget is for and what they may consider their budget is not for. In terms of professional arts activities, it is very based in human resources. That costs significant amounts of money but it is extremely rewarding and it is cost-saving in other ways. Therefore, no, they do not have the budget to provide that kind of everyday activity. It is very rare in nursing homes.