Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to make a brief contribution to this important business. As other colleagues noted, we must all be committed to care of the elderly.

I congratulate my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, on the efforts he is making. I was delighted with his promotion, not just because he freed up an office which I was then able to get, but because it was well deserved. The Minister of State has shown to all colleagues that he is doing a great job.

I have said before that I try to bring to my politics, especially my work in Leinster House, my life experience. Deputy Gormley mentioned the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, and we had a meaningful discussion this morning with consultants from St. Vincent's and St. James's hospitals about tuberculosis. I pointed out that I came from a Dublin of a different era. In that environment I noted as a child that my paternal and maternal grandmothers were always very anxious to remain at home, even when they were ailing and becoming very sick. They both died at home, surrounded by the family. I often cite that as an example when people talk of the different levels of care we need nowadays, and of nursing home care and subventions.

As I go about my business in my constituency and elsewhere in the Dublin region, I still get a clear sense that people recall the days of which I speak when older people had no choice but to stay at home. It was good for them to stay there, and I saw my grandparents staying. Even as a small child I recall they were anxious to do so. My parents unfortunately died in hospitals, but I remain committed to the idea that we should look after our elderly as far as possible in their home environment.

The Minister of State knows my views on home help. I am very supportive of the Tallaght home help agency which does a great deal of work. I am on the board of the Tallaght welfare council and I try to support the service in a practical way. That is the way forward — looking after the elderly at home. The welfare council faces other challenges, including helping young handicapped people, and it does a very good and meaningful job for the elderly. I know such work is done throughout the country.

The Government must understand the needs of the elderly and consider the issue of carers. As a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs I have often made the point that we must continue, as the Government has done, to look after carers and home help needs. We all acknowledge the great contribution made by the elderly over the decades in the development of the Celtic tiger economy. That is not patronising, and it has been recognised by successive Governments. I am proud that Fianna Fáil, in Government with the Progressive Democrats, has honoured the commitments made, certainly with regard to pensions. Other schemes have also been improved. The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Brennan, has done a great deal of good in that regard.

We should ensure that more schemes are developed to look after our elderly, such as free passports. Last week we saw the development whereby the elderly can now use their free travel passes at different times. The free transport scheme is important and we must work towards ensuring the elderly can travel free all day and every day on the buses, the DART and the Luas.

In my Dáil speeches I always refer to my constituency. I spend much time every day, week and month dealing with issues relating to the elderly. I spend as much time as possible going to places such as Glenview Lodge in Tallaght where they gather on a daily basis, in the south Dublin senior citizens group in Kiltipper and the various groups in the constituency not only in Tallaght but in my parish, St. Mark's, in the Tallaght west estates in Firhouse, Templeogue and Greenhills. It is important to do that because the elderly often have different problems and different needs. All of us as public representatives find that people come to us when they have particular needs and the systems are not working. I am always keen to stress — this falls within the remit of a number of Departments — that we should always continue to ensure services are easily accessible and known to people. In our clinics and offices every week all of us will get queries from people who, if the system was working, would have no difficulty in accessing services. There is a need to continue to stress that we must have information systems in place and public awareness campaigns on a regular basis so people, particularly the elderly, know what is available to them and how their needs can be fulfilled.

The citizen information centres, of which there is one in Tallaght village, do a great job in that regard but there are still gaps. On a daily basis I get queries from the elderly, or on their behalf, who say they did not know such a thing and ask how it can be done. It is important we continue to do what we can to improve that system as much as possible.

Any contribution on this subject would obviously have to include nursing homes and that whole system. In the Tallaght area many of the elderly have had to access services outside the area where they live. That happened in my family where an elderly uncle died in a lovely nursing home in Bray. He had to be taken from his home environment because he got to the stage where he was very elderly and needed the service but there were no beds available locally. In recent years much progress has been made in that area. In Tallaght there is Crooksling and there is a fine facility at Kiltipper Woods Care Centre. We must continue to look at the needs of the elderly.

We are all aging. On the way here when I told one of my sisters I was going to speak about the care of the elderly, she said I would be able to speak about my future. It is the future of us all.

I live in a town which has a young population. We are aging fast and we have to understand the particular challenges that will hold for future generations. It is important we continue to look at those needs and I expect the Minister of State will continue to do that.

I wish the Minister of State well. He has an important job and an important remit and has another 400 days at least before the general election and I know he will continue to look at these issues. As the general election momentum carries on, I am knocking on many doors these days and I get the sense that people do not want us to knock on doors for another year but that is the nature of the business. Many issues will be raised on doorsteps in a short time. It is important the business we are dealing with today gets the priority it deserves. All kinds of issues, including issues in the health area, that people regard as pertinent to gaining or losing votes will be raised. The care of the elderly is a matter to which we should pay attention. One has to do things for politics but also one has to do things for one's soul. I do not mean that in a virtuous or patronising way. It is right that we look after the elderly and their care. It is right that the Government would understand this issue is as important as any other.

My colleague, Deputy Neville, will be aware that Deputy Gormley said the Joint Committee on Health and Children has a role in this regard. We have a huge programme over the next year but we have to understand that what we are talking about today is just as important. I look forward to continuing to support the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Seán Power. It is good that he is in House listening to the various contributions. He will always have my support. Despite what colleagues on the other side have said he has a particularly demanding and challenging job to do and I look forward to him being successful.

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