Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move:

“That Seanad Éireann:

acknowledges: - the contribution that older people have made to Irish society through raising families, their work, both paid and voluntary and their charitable endeavours;

- that Irish people are living longer and that this presents opportunities and challenges and that living longer is one of humanity’s great success stories;

- the desire for older people to be active and involved in their communities;

- that the potential of our older persons is being unintentionally blocked by poor policy and that ageism, loneliness and undetected treatable conditions are widespread;

- that Ireland was the first country to be designated age-friendly status by the World Health Organisation in 2019;

- the work of charities assisting and advocating for older persons;

- the work of the independent Commission on Care for Older People;

- that the Programme for Government committed to:

- publish, resource, and implement a National Action Plan for long-term care of our elderly;

- continue to significantly increase the income disregards for carer’s allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government;

calls on Government to: - support older people to live at home and in their own communities by implementing the Programme for Government commitments on older persons;

- design a Statutory Homecare Scheme to allow people to stay in their own home for as long as possible;

- increase home care hours;

- rollout the Care and Repair Scheme nationally;

- increase the Housing Adaptation Grant;

- increase funding for the national Meals on Wheels network and develop a plan to ensure there are supported providers in every town in the country;

- expand the Enhanced Community Care programme;

- enhance our network of day centres

- continue to support Community Healthcare Networks;

- increase support for carers – providing training, establishing clearer pathways to services, and improving access to respite;

- fully fund the Carer’s Guarantee;

- continue to implement the local age-friendly strategies enabling the voice of older people through the Older People’s Councils;

- continue to work with The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing to support ageing well in Ireland;

- continue to support and enhance the Go for Life national programme for sport and physical activity for older people in partnership with the HSE and the Local Sports Partnerships; calls on Government, in recognising dementia supports, to: - work with the National Dementia Office and key stakeholders to develop a National Dementia Registry to map services, identify needs and the delivery of equitable access to services;

- establish 20 new dementia-specific day care centres;

- include dementia specific provisions across all new community nursing hospitals;

- increase ringfenced home care hours, and funding for dementia intensive home care packages;

- double funding for dementia day care at home;

- double the number of dementia advisers;

- rollout more Memory Assessment Support Services teams;

- rollout more early age dementia supports; calls on Government, in supporting the strengthening of our nursing home sector, to: - increase funding for the Fair Deal Scheme and ensure the waiting list does not exceed four weeks;

- build more public nursing home beds;

- publish the National Treatment Purchase Fund review of pricing systems in early 2025 and work towards an equitable funding model for the nursing home sector;

- provide a career pathway for healthcare assistants.”