Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On Monday this week, World Alzheimer's Day, the world united in the fight to raise dementia awareness and make a difference for the 46 million people worldwide who suffer from dementia. Unfortunately, we all know someone who suffers from dementia and the debilitating life impact it can have not only on a person but on loved ones and friends. In 2012, the World Health Organization stated that dementia is the biggest social issue facing the world today and in Ireland, as in the rest of the world, the prevalence of dementia is rising. Currently, there are 48,000 people with dementia in Ireland and this number is expected to treble in a generation. This is not a goal we want to reach, which is why I am urging the Minister to address brain health and dementia prevention. We must tackle this issue head on, and I would like to see the national dementia strategy for 2014 implemented.

If we could delay the onset of dementia for two years, it would result in a massive 20% decrease in prevalence. A report published recently and commissioned by the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland and authored by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland revealed that if key risk factors for dementia, such as low levels of education and unhealthy lifestyles, had been addressed through public policy initiatives, there could be a reduction of more than 1,000 in the number of people living with dementia in Ireland today. The study highlights seven modifiable risk factors, including low education, diabetes, smoking, depression, physical inactivity, mid-life obesity and high blood pressure. These are all risk factors that can be addressed, modified and avoided in many cases.

I work very closely with the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland in Blackrock and I wish to emphasise the simple concept of brain health it has proposed to me. This concept can be used to inform Government policies geared at minimising early school leaving and promoting a healthy lifestyle which it believes could prove significant in reducing dementia risk in the population. We could and should seriously consider the integration of dementia awareness into national public health programmes. We must fight the growing prevalence of this condition. Next year alone, 4,000 people - or 11 people per day - will develop dementia. This is alarming, as the average annual cost per person with dementia in Ireland is estimated at €40,500, with the economic cost of the illness was estimated at €1.7 billion in 2010. The concept of brain health is a new theme but it is effectively cost-neutral, as it is simply about incorporating messages into existing public health policies and promotions. As a member of the Committee on Health and Children, I fully recognise the challenges we face in tackling the risk factors alone, such as obesity and smoking. That is not reason enough not to consider how we can integrate brain health and dementia awareness into our existing public health policies. It can and should be done.

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