Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I heard what he had to say from the monitor in my office. I also acknowledge Senator Swanick and Seán Moynihan from ALONE. This report is a very interesting document: A Connected Ireland - An Ireland Free from Loneliness. The Senator was right to highlight this issue. Early in his work the Senator engaged with all of the 31 local authorities and their members in a comprehensive questionnaire and survey. They are a particular group of people who are well placed, as were the others, in the engagement and the stakeholders. The local authority members were an important group because they represent a very diverse set of circumstances and communities right across this island. In many ways they are the social worker and parish priest, as well as public representatives.

Councillors have a great feel for what is going on. I will mention a particular Independent councillor in Midleton, Noel Collins, who is a trained social worker. He spoke to me recently about some of the really sad and personal cases he had come across in the context of loneliness and isolation. Recently I spoke with members of the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, about the real issues of rural isolation in the farming community and the people who are left "minding the place", which is a great country expression. These people are the last of a family and they do not want to let go. They want to keep the place ticking over because it is in their blood. It is their inheritance and they want to keep it going. Many times this is done against real difficulties and real odds. Sometimes, perhaps because of their own isolation, they have not particularly cared for their mental health or had anybody interacting with them to a great extent.

The report is an important piece of work. It is going to require money. The report has identified five key areas, which I will repeat here. The task force has offered five key recommendations to address loneliness in Ireland: annual funding of €3 million towards combatting loneliness; the allocation of responsibility to combat loneliness to a specific Minister and Department; a public campaign; support for initiatives and organisations which alleviate loneliness as their primary function and an action plan for volunteering; and Ireland-specific research on loneliness. I agree with all of those recommendations.

Senator Swanick has made the point that we need more qualitative research, especially on the situation in Ireland. We all know many of the issues about it but the report's findings discuss funding, which is key, and a public campaign which is also important. The report also recommends supporting initiatives and Ireland-specific quantitative and qualitative research to help plan the most effective solutions to define loneliness and to developing a greater understanding and a strategy on the issue. The research can also look at how it links to mental health, which is a serious issue, and how we can put interventions in place.

It is a very good working document. It is not the be all and end all. The fact that we are having this debate is a beginning. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, to further engage with the ICA and RuralLink. We also have loneliness in Dublin. On RTÉ radio recently a woman from Bray - if I recall correctly it was on Joe Duffy's "Liveline" - said she gets up at 7 a.m. and until 11 p.m. she goes from Bray to Howth and back to stay warm, to make contact with people and to shorten her day. That is a very sad state of affairs. A Dublin man, again in an interview on the radio, said that he goes to the public library in the Ilac Centre. If he is not thrown out he may move on to a shop and then back. That is terribly sad but it is the reality for a lot of people. The days are gone of walking in and sitting up against a fire in an old café. A person is usually met at the door and asked how many people are coming, if a reservation has been made, if one wants to sit down and so on.

I will cite the local authorities again because I believe they have a critical role in the services they may provide. I am lucky to live in Dún Laoghaire where we have the dlr LexIcon library, which is open six days per week. It has reading rooms, book clubs, public papers, magazines and music rooms. It has activities going on all day. I know people who make a conscious effort to go to this resource that is more than a library: it is a community centre where people can have coffee or tea - which they are happy to pay for. They can interact with people and are encouraged to get involved in book clubs and so on. These are practical measures because it is about day making and time. It is about interacting with people in the community, which is important.

I do not suggest it is all about money. It is more about strategy and working out how we can develop community responses and further develop our community care programmes. In olden days of community nurses, district nurses or jubilee nurses of the past, they interacted with the community. They were the eyes and ears. They picked up messages and fed them back. We all have a responsibility, as citizens in our community, be it politicians or ordinary people living in the areas. I believe we can tap in imaginatively. Perhaps the local authorities can play a potentially very important role in the provision of services for interacting. People want to feel they belong and they want to feel loved and recognised. Many of the people who speak of being lonely say it is the sense that time has moved on and people have moved on and they have lost contact with people. In many cases they feel on their own. They become further isolated because their confidence breaks down and there are issues around that.

I welcome Senator Swanick's work that continues to drive this. It is important that we all work together on it. It is not all about money: it is about bold and imaginative community initiatives. That can go a long way to addressing the issue. I agree, however, that we need the further qualitative research on it. I thank the Senator for raising it and for continuing to make it an important issue.