Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a most distressing condition that people find themselves in. Everybody in the House knows families or people whose loved ones or family members are so afflicted, and I know many myself.

We waited ten years for a strategy on dementia to be produced. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, brought that forward after extensive consultation and published it before Christmas, and she also put together both an oversight committee and an implementation group to see that it happens. One of the action groups, Genio, has a number of projects in locations around the country, one of them here in Dublin. Atlantic Philanthropies was so taken by the quality of the strategy produced by the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, that it has contributed very substantially to this. Between it and the State, I believe over €27 million is being allocated for services and support for people who suffer from dementia in all its forms.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter of concern to families. The vocabulary changes automatically once a diagnosis is made but, in so far as the Government is concerned, we recognise this is an issue and the Minister of State has produced the strategy after the country had waited ten years for it. There is substantial support for those who are affected by the condition, the members of their families and those who provide the various supports. I can give the Deputy further details of the work that is going on at the various locations around the country, if he wishes.

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