Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

I could not agree with the Deputy. It is appropriate that his question has landed just as the Minister for Health has landed to the Chamber because this is an initiative that both Departments work on. The Minister and I are due to visit some nursing homes in the not too distant future to see the work that has taken place between the Department of Health and Creative Ireland. The Deputy is right. It is important that people are given a stimulus regardless of their age. Age should have no bearing on whether they participate in sport or cultural activity. Age should be no impediment or barrier to doing that; neither should someone's place of residence or their mobility or disability. The disability strategy I referred to goes a long way to that but we still have a lot of work to do in this space and in the collaboration between Sport Ireland, Creative Ireland, the HSE, my Department and that of the Minister for Health over the next number of months and years. We have ambition in this space. If Covid taught us anything it is that we cannot just leave our elderly with a radio, to be looked at through a sheet a glass. That is not stimulus and is not what anybody wants for anybody who is in an institution. They might be well looked after but there is more to life than that.

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