Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator very much. She raised a very valid point. I was just thinking as to how we could correspond with people who are not in a position to receive material because of sight loss or sight issues. One in seven older people has a challenge with reading and writing. It is something I have been looking at at the moment. It is hard to believe, but there are quite a lot of people out there who are challenged and they might find some of the language hard to navigate.

I will go back to the recently published Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030. This framework acknowledges the need for a joined-up national approach to health literacy to empower everybody in Ireland with the knowledge, skills and confidence to be active partners and advocates for their own area. This involves an integrated approach across healthcare, education and in our communities to enable, encourage and educate people to make informed choices about their own health and have a voice in their own care.

The framework identifies, and this might be important, “Patients as an empowered partner” as a key principle. We acknowledge that patients can find it challenging to navigate through the health and social care system. I will bring back what the Senator said because if it is on somebody's file that he or she is not in a position to read something, having it emailed to them so that the computer can actually-----