Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Adjournment. The lack of provision of funding for day care centres for elderly people is a typical example of the Government being penny wise and pound foolish. For a relatively small outlay of funds, the lives of retired people could be considerably enhanced, especially those living in isolated, rural areas.

The particular case I wish to refer to is the Stella Maris Centre in Lisdoonvarna. Currently this centre is a two-day care centre and has been since it was launched a year ago by the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. The people in the area have been fighting an uphill battle since to have a third day added to the schedule with a view to extending it to five days over time. A five-day care centre was the commitment given by the Minister last year when she visited Lisdoonvarna, but naturally nobody was so rude as to ask her by when that would happen. When will funding be provided to extend the centre to a three, four or five-day facility?

It is not that the local communities involved have not put their weight behind the project. More than €40,000 was raised through voluntary funds which paid for a bus. I have been informed that the organisers now seek a larger replacement bus, such has been the success of the scheme. The downside of that success, unfortunately, is that there is a waiting list for the facility. People from the nearby villages of Kilinaboy, New Quay, Corofin and Carron need not apply because there is not enough room for them at the centre.

Earlier this week I attended the opening of the Michael Cusack visitor centre in Carron. It is sad that on the one hand we can applaud and cherish the achievements of people such as Michael Cusack, but on the other hand ignore the living people who paid taxes through the lean years of the economy, who worked hard all their lives and made sacrifices for their children and parents, and who now find themselves neglected by the State.

Provision of funding for day care centres is a form of preventative medicine. It provides a physical and mental outlet for elderly people who, too often, find themselves home alone with little social contact. People in such situations often get ill or decline rapidly when they have so much inactivity forced upon them. That in turn puts an immense strain on our acute hospital services and our nursing homes which have been so much in the news recently. I cannot think of a better way for the Department of Health and Children to spend its budget than to rapidly expand its provision for day care centres throughout the country and explore means of opening new ones.

In my constituency of Clare, there are just six day-care centres, Lisdoonvarna, Kilmaley, Clarecastle, Raheen, Ennistymon and Kilrush and all need to be expanded. In addition, considerable efforts have been made to establish a centre in Sixmilebridge and again the local communities there have been very generous in providing voluntary funding to go towards such a centre. I take this opportunity to impress upon the Department the urgent need to back this project.

I had the pleasure this week of visiting the Lisdoonvarna centre. The Stella Maris centre currently has 60 people on its books, from Lisdoonvarna, Doolin, Ballyvaughan, and Fanore. An average of approximately 25 people attend the centre on each of the days it is open. The centre is run by four hardworking staff, including the bus driver. During those days it is open all day. Its main role is as a social outlet, where people meet up with old friends and make new ones. There are activities such as painting, crafts and quizzes. Physical exercise is an important part of the programme and the centre is part of Go for Life national programme for elderly people. This is a commendable programme which is run in partnership with HSE health promotion officers and which saves thousands if not millions on physiotherapy services and the like.

The centre also has a hairdressing service, bingo and singing and dancing sessions. The programme is a full one and has untold positive effects on the lives of participants. It also saves the HSE, the Department and ultimately the taxpayer millions of euro every year.

The people involved in the centre have appealed for an extension of at least one extra day per week for the centre for the coming year. I plead with the Minister of State for Transport who represents the Minister this evening to urge her to provide the funding because the Stella Maris centre is of such value to north Clare.

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