Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State all the best. I only have a short amount of time. I could talk for hours but I presume Members are all glad that I am prevented from doing so.

My parents are in their 80s so I wish to concentrate on relaying the concerns of a son about having two parents in that age bracket. My mum is 80 and my father is 81. They are active and very much community people as everyone around us and throughout much of Tipperary knows. My mother would have been going on her 15th trip to Belarus this year only for Covid-19. I do not know if I would want her going there to work in the orphanages the way the situation is at the moment. My parents are active in the community but their lives have changed dramatically and so have the lives of many elderly individuals across Ireland. We need to concentrate and focus in on them because they have paid their taxes. They have worked, by God, have they worked. They have worked so hard and they have gotten us to where we are as a community, a society and a country and we cannot just let them rot. I often feel they are being forgotten so it is the Minister of State's job in government to make sure they are not.

I want to refer to a gentleman lives near me. I will not say his name, although if I asked him, he would not mind. However, I have not asked him yet. He basically said that he will not tolerate another cocooning lockdown situation and he will take his chances. He is 86 years old. He could not really go to the pub because the pub is closed, not that he drank much. He cannot go to see his grandchildren and great grandchildren play hurling, or his grand daughters and great granddaughters. He has no car so he walks around the road on the bit of land that he has, which is not much. He basically hopes a neighbour will drive by so he can have a chat. He goes to mass once a week for 20 minutes or 25 minutes.

We have all the statistics in the context of what Age Action Ireland and ALONE have said. We all know what we are dealing with here. What I am asking the Minister of State is simple. All the technology in the world is not going to work for many of our elderly. We need a plan for them.

This will be with us for a considerable period irrespective of whether we get a vaccine. They deserve to live within our society and have a good quality of life like the rest of us. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that next week's plan is elderly proofed. I am sorry for getting down into detail. We need to have a specific plan to ensure that all our elderly can get out and about, have stimulation, and go to social and sporting events in a controlled and safe way.

Someone in their 80s asked me a very simple question as to when they could go back to playing cards, just the six not a nine even. This person used to play three or four times a week and that was their social outlet. How can we organise our society to ensure that the elderly can get out to play bridge, other card games or whatever their activity is? As a society we need to ensure that happens.

I take this opportunity to compliment the HSE. In the mid-west, including in my constituency of Tipperary, through the national programme for older people the HSE has introduced a very good capital programme. It is in the process of building a new wing in the Community Hospital of the Assumption in Thurles. That unit will be interventionist. It will scan the elderly around that area of north Tipperary and assess those who need to be brought in so that they do not end up as bed-blockers in acute care. This was thought out by the HSE through the Covid emergency funding. This was never thought of before early this summer. The previous Minister for Health was not aware of it and the current Minister for Health asked me what it was. I think it is a very good thing to look after the elderly and prevent them ending up in acute care. Given what the HSE is doing in the mid-west, in Clare, Tipperary and Limerick - I understand it is going on in Waterford as well - it would be good if that model could be introduced nationally.

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