Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I spoke about the brilliant organisation, CareBright, and I mentioned that I had been in Bruff in County Limerick and had visited one of its centres for adults with dementia. I spoke of how extraordinary the centre was insofar as it had tried to create a family atmosphere where people could live independently but in a community, in what was a village within a village. They had their own bedrooms and places to eat, as well as artistry and cooking. They could live their lives even though they were suffering from dementia. I raise it again this morning because the Cuisle group is outside the door looking for funds and speaking about being closed down, while CareBright is at the end of its tether trying to keep open. It has to register as a nursing home because it does not have the facilities and there is no actual model. We have ideas but we do not back up the models financially. CareBright has deficits each week in the money it needs to stay open.

We are running around calling people fascists and racists and if we continue to do so it will become absolutely meaningless. We need to seriously look, internally, at how we treat people as they get older, become feeble and frail and need help. We should not be begging for money to keep facilities open for disabled adults, for people with dementia or those with Alzheimer's disease, and relying on the goodness of people outside the system. They have to be able to pay for themselves and I do not want to hear name-calling across the Houses. People should look in their own kitchen before shouting, roaring and bawling about what others do from the point of view of migration or immigration. My own pathology is that I am becoming an elder of this island and I want it to be a good experience for everybody, including the nursing homes and the people I meet when I visit them. This is extremely important and we keep pounding it and talking about it. I am not saying the Government is doing nothing - it is trying very hard - but it is extremely important that people have the money and do not have to eke out or make up a shortfall every week. The shortfall in Bruff is almost €300 per person per week. The home should not be in that position when it is doing such great, humane and creative work to make people's lives worth living as they face the trauma of losing the sense of their own feet on the ground.

We need to wake up and if I hear the words "fascist", which I heard from a Labour Party Senator in here, or "racist" again I will run for cover. We are neither of those and we are bandying around this language when we should be using the language of profit. Maybe we should be looking at the banks, which are back in profit and hoping we will not fine them any more. It is our profit and our USC but people like those in CareBright are striving and begging for money, making it up with fêtes, buns and other things around the country. The Seanad needs to get its priorities right because this is becoming tiresome. If we have nothing to do on Thursday we could visit Cuisle and, if we cannot find our way there, we could visit Bruff. We can see the brilliant things that are being done, as well as the gaps under the door that need to be filled, instead of talking through our heads about policies. We have a lot of policies but we do not see any practical application and I am sick listening to policy