Mr. Seán Moynihan:

I will give a short answer to the higher level point. As a sector, we have called for a commissioner on care for the older person, similar to an ombudsman, so that, ultimately, we can hold all Governments to account over the years to implement the policies, procedures, practices and strategies that are there for older people. The experience of the age sector is that while the national positive ageing strategy was launched around 12 years ago, it never had an implementation plan, it never had any funding and around 2017 it went from a strategy to principles. Once something goes from strategy to principles, Government Departments are no longer under an obligation to respond to what is in a strategy document. Ultimately and bit by bit, it fell away. After losing 12 years, the conversation around that is restarting. I am a great believer that in the political system, the public service and the NGO sector a large number of great reports and strategies are done but we need to have the ability to hold people accountable and deal with whole-of-government issues. Having an ageing population is a bit like global warming; it will change every Government Department because every Department's customer base is changing, including the needs and designs of every service. We usually talk about pensions, health and housing and we stop there. We are barely included in the housing debate. We need to get better at those whole-of-government issues. We need to do that and sometimes this requires holding up a mirror and holding people accountable.