Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I echo the calls made earlier for the media publication of the Walsh report. I have raised this matter on a weekly basis for the past two years. I hope that the Minister will publish the report and urge him to do so before we break for summer recess.

I congratulate an initiative spearheaded in County Louth by two Dundalk Institute of Technology research centres. It was named recently as one of the top projects in Europe at a European Union award ceremony for active and healthy ageing practices. As many Senators know, County Louth is the age-friendly county. The Dundalk Institute of Technology and two associated centres, the Netwell Centre and CASALA, have been doing major innovative work in the area of age-friendly initiatives.

The DKIT based Netwell Centre and CASALA along with University College Cork got together for a collaboration on ageing. Theirs was among 32 initiatives to be named as the reference site by the Commission, but only one of 13 to receive three star status. These awards have been referred to as the Oscars for innovation. COLLAGE and other recipients are paving the way for age-friendly initiatives. I congratulate the directors of the Netwell Centre and CASALA on their success and on their aims to continue to work to reduce the average healthy life-span of a European by two years by the year 2020.