Mr. Gerry Martin:

I thank Deputy McLellan for her kind comments, which will be sincerely appreciated by all of my colleagues. She also mentioned end-of-life-proof homes, but I am not 100% familiar with the concept.

Today I shall reflect the views of people with dementia and their carers. More than a year ago the Alzheimer Society of Ireland set up a working group of people with dementia who meet on a regular basis to influence our services and policies. It is the clear desire of people with dementia and their carers to be supported and allowed to remain at home for as long as possible, up to and including the end of life. That is their expressed wish. In the context of dementia, the home setting is always the best setting. I do not underestimate the intervention and support that carers need to achieve that goal. It must be right along the trajectory, from diagnosis onwards, rather than in the form of intervention at a crisis moment. It is a clear desire of people with dementia to remain at home until the end of their lives, if possible.

Deputy Kelleher touched on resources. He also touched on the importance of better planning of resources, which can produce better results. A lot of resources are being spent in the area, but I shall concentrate on dementia. In the society's budget submission, for example, we estimated that 15,000 people with dementia live in residential settings at present. We could reduce that number with better early interventions.

If we could reduce it by 10%, we could save €73 million per annum. A significant amount of resources has been dedicated to this area. As the Deputy mentioned, we could use the money more wisely with better planning and early interventions. It will be less expensive if we focus on early intervention.