Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State. It is a very proud day. I am proud of her so I hope she is proud of herself. This legislation has been worked on for more than five years but she was the woman to get it over the line with great help from her civil servants, some of whom are in the Chamber. It is a great day for rural Ireland too. We often get accused, as a Government, of being very Dublin-centric, which is obviously not the case. When the Minister of State got into the House, this legislation was a priority for her from day one. It is always important to celebrate wins because there are so many negative stories, problems and issues in Irish society, especially since the Covid pandemic. It is very important that we acknowledge and celebrate wins when we get them. To put it simply, this legislation is an amendment to the fair deal scheme but it really helps the family farm, which is very important. The scheme will enhance and protect family farms and small businesses. The proposed amendments to the scheme extend the principle of the three-year cap to contributions based on family owned and family operated farms and businesses. I thank the Minister of State for that.

The lack of appropriate home care help for elderly people is another issue. This is the beginning of the Minister of State solving all the problems and she has a lot of work ahead of her. Home care help is the issue I have got most phone calls about since I became a Senator. So many old people have rung me who wanted home help in their houses but could not get it because they were not eligible or could not afford to go into a home care centre they felt comfortable with. Older people have many fears about going into home care centres. We have a lot of work to do on this issue.

Originally, back in the day, older people were seen as our elders and the wise people of our communities. They were the centre of communities and everything revolved around them. They passed on their wisdom to us because with age comes wisdom. We listened to our elders and that is how communities and societies then decided what was best. Unfortunately, we have moved away from elders being the centre of society. However, this is a very good day for elderly people living on the family farm in rural Ireland. We need a proper assessment of the housing needs of older people in Ireland. It is probably the next matter we will have to look at because older people do not always put their hands up to say they have a problem with where they live and that they need to move into a home, village or town because they are too rurally isolated.

One major thing I have learned in the past year is that if an older person does not have any medical ailments, as such, it is very hard to get home help. Many old people have rung me purely out of loneliness. They just wanted someone to come to visit them. Families are getting smaller and the days when one had a cluster of siblings all around the place are gone. There were seven children in my family and I have one son. That is a big difference in one generation. That is the way we are going now, so who will take care of old people when siblings are not there? As a society, people are busier and do not have time to mind old people so everything has changed.

I now realise that if one wants home help on mental health grounds, it seems one has to have a major mental health issue before it will be given. Prevention is better than cure and if people ring me who just want home help, even for an hour twice a week because they are devastatingly lonely, I need to be able to say, "I can do this for you, you deserve this, you have lived on the planet eight decades, you have given a whole life to this planet and it is time to give back to you." I have listed major challenges the Minister of State has but, overall, this is a very positive day and a very good day for farming families. I thank her profoundly for that.