Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator very much. Her points are very well made. In addition to the winter plan, which I mentioned earlier, some €22 million has been provided in the 2020 national service plan for dementia-specific services including more than €7.5 million in funding for dementia-specific home care packages and the extension of the dementia adviser services, with the additional ten advisers to be recruited this year. This should make a significant difference.

Support is to be given to key voluntary organisations such as the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, which has adapted its services to meet the needs of people living with dementia since the public health emergency began and for whose work I once again thank it. In addition to dementia-specific home care packages, people living with dementia can also benefit from standard home support services, which have a budget of €490 million this year.

As the Senator will have seen in the winter plan, which we will discuss in the Seanad later, €139 million has been made available for extra home care supports, which will cover an extra 4.7 million hours. The supports will, of course, also be offered to people with dementia. In addition, more than €6 million in dormant accounts funding has been secured since 2016 for a range of dementia-related project as part of the process of implementing the national dementia strategy.

Dementia has a prominent place in the programme for Government but I am also committed to ensuring that people with dementia can access the right services and supports to enable them to continue living in their own communities. It is an appropriate time for the Senator to raise this issue as I was in budget talks yesterday and this issue was discussed in the context of the Estimates. I am acutely aware of the challenges involved.