Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who has responsibility for older people and mental health. It is great to have the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (Amendment) Bill 2021 here. I thank my colleagues who have given heartfelt accounts. They have spoken openly about their own stories. Farming is a way of life. It is a fantastic way to grow up. My mum and dad gave me values, a love of where I come from, a love of the land and a hard work ethic, from sun-up to sun-down, sometimes. There can be pure joy in it. When I think about July, when I was a kid, growing up, if the silage was in, the hay was done and the turf was in before the Galway Races, that was really good. There was joy in that. Times are changing and our lives are changing. Society is getting older. Our way of life is changing in some of our rural areas, especially in counties such as Galway and Roscommon, where there are now many older people, with the number aged over 65 doubling in the 2016 census.There is such pain for farm families when a loved one may need to move to residential care. Great efforts are made to keep our loved ones in our homes and to look after them but there is an impact when they have to go, and the impact on farm families is potentially the loss of land or issues with managing the break-up of a farm and a family home.

As the Minister of State noted and my colleagues have mentioned, a three-year cap on the financial contributions of family-owned and family-operated farms and businesses when calculating the cost of nursing home care is provided for in the programme for Government. It was worked on a great deal by the previous Government as well.

My colleague, Senator Kyne, spoke about succession and inheritance, which is a crucial issue on which Teagasc does much work. One of those tricky matters, although it is a conversation we all need to have within families, relates to writing a will and talking about what the future will look like. On many small farms, the children grow up and may study in Dublin or abroad and go everywhere else to get jobs, and they will no longer be at home. Could neighbours take over the farm or could other family members step in and help out? It is about putting a plan in place and having those conversations. The legislation is intended to support families in doing that and allow successors to come in and take over the family farm in order that there will be support for the older family members later in life.

Other colleagues spoke at length about their personal experiences of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. I worked on an Horizon 2020 project with the National University of Ireland Galway school of nursing and midwifery. It concerned technology and how important it is for supporting people with dementia and Alzheimer' disease, as well as the chronic nature of the disease and how to support families. I acknowledge another fantastic announcement the Minister of State made this week, relating to the healthy age friendly homes initiative. It will be a pilot programme rolled out to nine counties including Galway. It will target 4,500 homes and examine specifically how to support older people to live independently in their own homes for as long as possible, using technology such as telehealth and telecare to do that, in order that they can live with supports in place.

I had the opportunity to meet some representatives of the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, including Mr. Tim Cullinan, outside the convention centre. I acknowledge also Ms Caroline Farrell, chair of the IFA's family farm committee. They have worked so hard, along with many other farming organisations, to ensure we have this scheme in place before the Houses adjourn for the summer. We often talk about an ageing population. As Senator Malcolm Byrne said, some of us will live to 100 years of age. We are going to live longer but it is not about just that; it is about active and healthy ageing. That is so crucial. Farming, in many ways, is a fantastic way of life because it involves living outdoors and being physically active. As many Senators noted, people who live such lives are at the top of their health, at least until perhaps something happens in their 80s or 90s. They are so independent. We need to support them living independently in their own homes or in residential units. In my area of Ballinasloe, it is about one-bedroom or two-bedroom units in community areas, with supports in place. Clúid Housing has done a great deal for that as well.

How can we support Teagasc with succession planning? I acknowledge that Sláintecare and Healthy Homes Ireland are involved in the healthy age friendly homes programme. How can we support succession planning through Sláintecare and the health communities?