Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to contribute to this debate in my role as Minister of State with responsibility for older people in the Department of Health and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I have worked with colleagues to secure substantial funding increases that will assist in meeting the needs of older people in the areas of health and housing, along with the Government firmly supporting older people to live full, independent lives with the proper services in place. This is reflected in this year's budget with specific measures aimed at meaningfully impacting the lives of older people. A key focus for Government is about allowing older people to continue to live independently in their own homes and communities for as long as they wish.

In health alone we have seen an increase of €215 million. It is a 7% rise. We now have well in excess of €3 billion being spent on older persons' services in the Department of Health. A key element of those is home support, which has gone up by €82 million. More particularly, it will give rise to 1.7 million additional home care hours in 2026, bringing the total allocation to 26.7 million hours, the highest ever. Over €2 million additional funding has been provided to meals on wheels services. That is a 30% increase. It is something I very much wanted to prioritise. We currently deliver 2.7 million meals to 18,000 people.

That €2 million is a 30% increase and it is something that will have a meaningful impact on the ground for the lives of older people and others. Some €82 million additional funding will be allocated to the fair deal scheme to support the nursing home sector to expand services and improve quality and to provide an additional 500 people with financial support to access long-term residential but also to support the overall nursing home sector. As regards measures within the Department of housing budget, more particularly we are looking at a €30 million increase on last year in the housing adaptation grants, which will support 70,000 applicants. A further €28.5 million will support the adaptation of €1,800 existing social homes. There is an increased capital allocation to housing of €2.9 billion to support local authorities and approved housing bodies in the delivery of newly built social homes, which will help in meeting the housing needs of older people. Returning to health, within that €250 million is €2.3 million towards dementia services. I launched the commencement of a national dementia register during the year. It is a key priority. We are also providing funding to the Alzheimer Society of Ireland to open five new day care centres and they will have up to 36 dementia advisers.

The Government is fully committed to addressing the needs of older people and I look forward to leading and working on that priority area as regards older people. I commend the older persons' budget to the House. The measures we have brought in, including the 1.7 million additional home care hours, the additional €2 million funding for meals on wheels and the additional €92 million for the fair deal scheme, along with the €130 million for home adaptation grants, will make a huge and meaningful difference to older people's lives.

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