Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I took pleasure yesterday in attending the launch of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county sports participation strategy for the years 2013 to 2017. I am happy to state Dún Laoghaire exceeds the national average in every category of activity. What is important to note, however, is that Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown has a higher average age than the rest of the population. I wish to draw attention to a longitudinal study that was published very recently on the health of those in the over-50 cohort. There is some good news and bad news. Worryingly, over one third of those over 50 are obese, and over 44% are overweight. This has serious consequences for their health, particularly cardiovascular health. There is no doubt that we have been paying a lot of attention to the obesity of younger children, as we rightly should, but we must not forget that there is an older cohort to whom attention should also be paid in terms of their life expectancy and health. Over 20% of men and 25% of women over 50 had fallen in the 12 months prior to the study. This is a very worrying matter that should be taken into account, particularly when considering lifelong adaptability of housing and what we are doing in our built environment. While I acknowledge that this House has been very active in discussing age and ageing, we could have a further debate on these issues in line with the study.