M J Nolan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

This debate is timely in so far as every Member of the House would support the allocation of more resources for the care of the elderly. It is important to acknowledge the additional €110 million of revenue funding provided in the most recent budget. We must also note that people now live longer, obtain hospital treatment faster which ensures they have a better quality of life, see more specialists and work in healthier workplaces. In addition, people with disabilities are finally receiving priority and supports. For these reasons, the number of elderly people is greater than ever.

It is Government policy to ensure older people can remain at home in dignity and independence if this is their wish, while providing high quality residential care for those who can no longer remain at home in dignity and independence. It should be the policy of every Government to ensure our senior citizens can remain in the environs to which they have become accustomed, which is what they seek.

One of the down sides of a successful economy, in our case the Celtic tiger, is that with an increasing number of people in employment, families have less time to look after elderly parents or aunts and uncles. It disappoints me to receive telephone calls from members of families to tell me they are being put under pressure by Kilkenny General Hospital to take an elderly relative home on the basis that the hospital has done everything in its power for the person and there is no medical reason for him or her to continue to use a high support bed when more urgent cases are waiting to be admitted to the hospital. In such circumstances, family members will often argue that as both spouses work, they do not have the wherewithal to look after their elderly relative.

It is important that the Government continues to make provision to support elderly people, including funding for the home help service which they need to continue to live at home. The home help service, the cornerstone of community based care for older people, is delivered as part of the community support service. The investment the Government makes in the service is money well spent. A cost benefit analysis would demonstrate that the service provides much greater value for money than the large investments required in our regional, general and local hospitals.

It is also important to continue funding day care hospitals, which elderly people, including many who live alone in rural settings, avail of to meet other people in similar positions. Whether they visit such centres once or twice a week or on a daily basis, they enhance their quality of life and deserve support. I commend the Government's policy on the care of the elderly and wish more resources could be allocated to this sector.

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