Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I came to the Chamber to support Senator Swanick whose report I have read. When I came in here as a Senator in 2011 the Independent Members developed the Seanad Public Consultation Committee. The first person who came before that committee was from the Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing, TILDA. We were shocked when he said that one of the biggest problems for elders on our island was melancholia and depression arising out of loneliness. We all thought the main problem would be something physical. We did not really believe it as we do not expect older people to be melancholic or depressed. We expect that of a different cohort.

I noted some of the points Senator Swanick made about the physical manifestations of loneliness, starting with smoking and ending with depression, isolation and lack of conversation. I also noted the point he made about the lack of human voice. One of the people who wrote to the task force spoke about the lack of human voice and the empathy that comes with it. We are so modern now but we have completely forgotten about the empathy of the human voice.

The Government needs to be consistently aware of, and be a bulwark against, the dissipation of communities. If we do not have communities, we have nothing. I was at the national heritage awards last week and I thought at the time that it was more important than politics and that it had more impact. Involvement in communities has so much to offer, even when it is in the area of heritage rather than the areas of helping people cope, providing meals on wheels or offering conversation. I have seen this with the post offices. It starts with the post office and the big supermarket at the end of town. Life becomes dissipated for all ages, including the young and elders with youthful hearts.

What Senator Swanick has said in the report is wonderful. I would like to see more Irish research than American and English research because we are not America or England. We need money for that. We are a unique island and I am very proud of that. We need to find our own faults, our own ways forward and our own reasons rather than assuming they run parallel to those found in other research. I congratulate the Senator. This is a most pertinent and timely report. We in the Seanad always have to be a bulwark against the conglomerates and the fast-forward economic graph, which is really not that fast at all. I thank Senator Swanick very much. I will be delighted to give him any help I can.