Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also was very disappointed to hear that the closure of the Rosalie unit in County Roscommon had been announced. The unit cares for psychiatric patients, including those with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. As the Minister of State is aware, a recent mapping exercise by the Department of Health and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, ASI, examined the level of dementia care available to our citizens. The results made for very disappointing reading throughout the country. I accept that the Minister of State inherited these services and I acknowledge his work to date on dementia.

I submitted a parliamentary question to see how many people in Roscommon have dementia and why these beds would be taken from the system. The reply stated that 614 people in Roscommon with dementia live at home and there are 1,842 carers. The Rosalie centre has had no new admissions since September 2016, which indicates that a decision to wind it down was made two years ago.

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