Mr. Oliver O'Connor:

It is wonderful to be back. The prevalence of the need for nursing home care among those in the over 65 year age group should never be more than one in 20. It should, in fact, be less than 5%. It is important to emphasise that it is not the case that one will end up in nursing home care once one reaches 65 years. Such care should only be necessary for those in the high-dependency category. I am sure that one of the great campaigners in this area, Professor Des O'Neill, a geriatrician, still reminds everyone involved in it that, regardless of the age one reaches, one never has more than a 50% chance of suffering from dementia. Again, there is no inevitability in this regard. Obviously, we must manage conditions and chronic diseases that come with ageing, but people should not be of the view that once they reach 90 years of age, they will develop dementia almost immediately. That is not the case. The job of those in the pharmaceutical industry is to support the management of chronic diseases, acute illnesses and ageing in order to ensure the period of suffering experienced by those unfortunate enough to be severely disabled as a result of these conditions will be kept to a minimum.