Mr. Seán Moynihan:

The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, produced a report on downsizing a couple of years ago that probably claimed the narrative in this area. However, the report was commissioned by Bank of Ireland and the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. I will leave it there.

That is where we come to Rebuilding Ireland. We need to age-proof it. We want all families and children to have housing and homes. Single people and couples are behind them on the list however, and that is the majority of people coming through. That is the long-term view. As the legislators, the committee members are the ones who must look five, ten or 15 years ahead. In fairness to the public officials, when visiting the Department one finds they are overwhelmed with the responsibilities they already have. When we mention older people's housing, it seems that they are up to here and they cannot take any more.

Ultimately, what we are trying to do is to work out the demand for these measures. The committee should take notice of our responsibility and accountability. We have a situation where there is a lot of capacity-building. There is a lot of discussion, and there is much commonality in the views of different people. The messages are consistent from politicians, NGOs and councils. We need to turn that into a bias towards action on the ground. That means looking at things like demand and where it arises. We need to ask who, what, when, where and how. That will produce figures for varieties of housing that are quite uncomfortable and difficult to deal with but at least by having those numbers we will understand the challenge that we can collectively work on.

If we provide housing for older people, we are in the support business. That is the way I put it. In a large cohort of older people, a percentage will be very active and independent at any one time, and a percentage will need support. It is critical to bring those supports to bear through the housing. There needs to be a national framework. As Mr. Bond kindly mentioned, we are trying to roll out navigators, people who can help older individuals navigate multiple complex systems so that they can age at home. That might include transport, housing, health or anything else. It is important to help them age at home and build the supports around them.

From Mr. Bond's pioneering work, we have taken on some of the proactive technology that Netwell has developed. Again, assistance technology is something that everybody agrees on and we are currently rolling it out. We are trying to bring these approaches to scale, but there must be funding streams and support for them. The point of an NGO is that we help define the problems and then we help demonstrate the solutions. We need the support to bring them to scale and in many cases that is what we are missing. I note that there is so much we can agree on and I ask the committee members to create a bias towards action in their report.