John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I enjoyed reading their opening statements last night. From a political perspective, I have a few comments and some specific questions. I have always found that elections are good pulse-takers. One of the things I saw in 2009 fighting a local election was that two issues were beginning to appear on the radar and to be spoken about at doors that had not really happened in the previous local election.

One was autism and the other was dementia. By 2014, it was really interesting that in five years they had completely spiralled, and since then it has been exponential. Politically speaking, I would trace my awareness or that, "My God, this is a coming thing, it is growing, needs addressing and is with us to stay", to around 2009. I do not know whether that tallies with things.

I was in Kilnamanagh Family Recreation Centre, where the Alzheimer's Society does really good work. It was mentioned to me that pre-Covid, it had an excellent facility available in Bloomfield Hospital, Rathfarnham, where a lot more people could participate. I raised this with the chief executive at Bloomfield and they seem to be very open to restarting this. I found it difficult to communicate that to the witnesses from a communications point of view, whether it was by telephone, email or whatever. The witnesses seem to be pushing an open door with Bloomfield. It is very supportive.

Other things I would have seen were at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. Much of the early part of the Alzheimer's Society's contribution was about innovation. At the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, I have seen a lot of stuff over the years - even that BT has done itself - with regard to small but innovative and very dramatic assistance they have provided, whether it is telephones with icons of key principals, who people should ring or a digital alert on their medicine cabinet reminding them about tablets. There are a lot of people doing a lot of work to try and make life easier and more liveable.

One question I had when I was reading was: can we say for sure - and this is important - that dementia crosses every economic and social divide? I see the witnesses nodding vigorously, so that is okay. They might want to elaborate on that. It is important that there is not an economic or social strata that escapes this.