Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Humphreys and the all-party working group on dementia for getting this debate onto the agenda. This is a hugely important issue for me and I am shocked that it is even necessary to have the debate. A friend of mine, Don O'Neill who lives in New York, is a very well-known fashion designer and he held a fashion show as a fundraiser a couple of years ago. I went along to support it but I had no understanding of the great work the hospital did until then. They showed videos of families and people with dementia, including young people who had dementia in their late 40s and who have children aged 18 or 19. It was heartbreaking. We have had long discussions about the resources allocated in the budget to vital services, yet we are now discussing the potential closure of an essential care centre which is relied on by many families and vulnerable older people.I thank the Minister of State for being here today. This must be difficult for him because he is a very compassionate man. The figures laid out by my colleagues are stark. St. Joseph's in Shankill is the largest dementia care home in the country, which provides mostly end-of-life palliative care on a not-for-profit basis for people suffering from dementia. Over 60 people live there. The Minister of State knows all this. It also provides a further 120 day-care places. The home has been struggling with funding since 2012 and at this point the day-care centre may close as soon as January, with the entire facility being wound down not long after that. That is really shocking. What are those 120 families supposed to do? What are the 60 people with dementia currently living in the facility supposed to do? It is unacceptable that those families are facing into Christmas and the winter months with this horrible uncertainty looming over them. We are talking about a matter of weeks. At a minimum, we need a short-term funding allocation in order to provide security and comfort for the people involved and to allow time to meet with the management and figure out longer-term support. People watching this debate are unsure as to whether their loved ones with dementia will have somewhere to go in a few weeks' time.

This is depressing, to put it lightly, and it is unacceptable that we are having this conversation in one of the richest countries in the world. I believe we are the tenth richest country in the world. We have a duty of care to the most vulnerable in our society and it is heartbreaking that they are facing a closure such as this one. Politics is to a large extent a question of how we allocate resources. I understand that we have competing demands and endless trade-offs for what we can do. However, I firmly believe that a certain level of care and well-being is simply non-negotiable and represents a moral floor below which nobody in this country should be allowed to fall. In a republic worthy of that name it should be taken as a given that we provide a basic standard of food, shelter, education and healthcare, which we should set as our minimum standard. That is how a wealthy country should act, by looking after its most vulnerable. That is what we should be doing. It should be our top priority. Beyond this, we can have a debate and weigh up the costs and benefits of how to allocate resources, but only above this line, once the basic needs of care and dignity are met.

I am sorry to say that we are failing badly when it comes to housing. Given that the families of 60 people suffering with dementia have had to launch a public campaign to keep their vital support service open, it is clear that we are failing in healthcare too. The figures show a €7 million shortfall, which is mostly due to essential capital investment to meet targets set by HIQA. St. John of God Hospital has been making up this shortfall for several years but it is becoming unsustainable. It seems a further €1 million will be needed next year. These figures are alarming but we have to put them into perspective. We need context when discussing resources and trade-offs. Every year, the Irish State pays €17 million to the greyhound industry and essentially pours public money into it in order to keep commercially non-viable tracks afloat. That should serve as a stark reminder of the levels of money about which we are talking and how our priorities are reflected in the budget. We are debating a small amount of money that is needed to provide vital supports for dementia sufferers and which pales in comparison with many of the other lines in the most recent budget. It is simply not good enough. I join my colleagues in calling on the Government to make sure this vital service is maintained. We should be debating how this service can be replicated and expanded across the country, rather than being closed prematurely.