Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome to the Chamber. It goes without saying that older people have made an incredible contribution to this country. The economic and social success of this Republic is due to the major work, sacrifice and care of previous generations. Many of our older citizens were parents in difficult times in the 1950s and 1960s when money was scarce, opportunities were few and emigration was often the only option left. There resulting sadness and separation were features of the rest of the lives of parents and are still felt often. Education was seen as the great saviour and the route out of poverty. The older people of today sacrificed much to give a good education to their children in order to better themselves. Their efforts have given us the well-educated society we have today, where knowledge is valued by ourselves and the many foreign companies that choose to locate here.

Older people have never played such a strong part in our communities. They remain active and healthier for longer. Older people are visible in voluntary groups and activities. They are the backbone of Tidy Towns groups, meals on wheels and, of course, men's and women's sheds.

I will compliment the work of a number of organisations that have highlighted the contributions of older people and the challenges they face in the Ireland of today. The Independent Commission on Care for Older People has raised the issues involved and has indicated a number of measures that would improve the lot of older people. We also appreciate the great work done by many charities advocating for older persons.

Molaim daoine aosta sa tír seo, daoine a d'oibrigh go crua thar na blianta chun a chlanna a thógáil agus deiseanna agus acmhainní a thabhairt dá gcuid páistí. Is éard atá ón bhformhór acu ná fanacht ina dteach féin chomh fada agus is féidir. Caithfimid scéim reachtúil cúram baile a chur i bhfeidhm trasna na tíre. Teastaíonn an deontas a mhéadú chun gur féidir athchóiriú a dhéanamh ar a dtithe. Caithfimid breathnú ar scéimeanna sciath-thithíochta in éineacht le seirbhísí lae agus tacaíocht sláinte. Tá cásanna maithe trasna na tíre, mar shampla i nDún Mhuire i mbaile na Fairche i gConamara thuaidh, áit a bhfuil ocht dtithe beaga i lár an bhaile gar do na siopaí, don séipéal agus d'áiseanna sa bhaile.

Most older people want to live in their own homes for as long as possible. We need to ensure there is a statutory home care scheme for our older citizens. We need to ensure that the resources are put into adaptations for their houses. I know our local authorities do a lot, and we know the demands on the services and grants they provide. We need to ensure that those grants continue to be available.

We must also look at examples. I know there are examples in the Minister of State's constituency and region. There are wonderful developments, such as in Clonbur in Galway where there are eight houses behind the old convent. They are in the centre of the town. There are eight homes for elderly people. That has given a new lease of life to people who were isolated. Perhaps they were without family or moved into the area ten or 15 years previously. They now have a small community. They are near the shops, the church, the pub and wherever else they want to go to socialise, meet people and be part of the community. I am sure there are hundreds of examples of similar initiatives around the country.

In order to keep people at home, we must consider a statutory home care scheme to underpin the policy and the desires and needs of older people and their families. There are always examples of people who are quite happy to go into a community setting or become part of an active nursing home or whatever else, but the majority of people want to live in their own homes for as long possible. I would like to stay at home for as long as possible when I get to that stage and I am sure most of us would. We would also want our parents and loved ones to be able to stay at home. As I said, we need to ensure that the adaptations that local authorities deal with, including ramps, stairlifts, accessible kitchens and showers, and all of those supports, are provided and there is sufficient funding for them.

Home care hours are important for people as they become older and less mobile. Everyone's family is different. I have made this point quite often. There are seven of us in my family and we were able to look after our father at home throughout all of his illness until he passed. That was great, because we were able to keep him at home. We had a rota and were able to do what needed to be done, with the great help of our mother and a small amount of home help. Not every family can do that. There are families where one person is at home and three or four others are in different parts of the country. Some siblings may be abroad. There are also families with an only child. There may be elderly people who were not fortunate enough to have children or made the choice not to have them. There are many different scenarios and types of families out there, but they all deserve to be given the best possible care.

Home care hours are important, as I said, and their expansion is important. The enhanced community care programme provides excellent care for older people in the communities. We need increased home care hours in those cases. Carers provide both great support and company for older people.Unfortunately, we have had problems recruiting adequate numbers for the role of care, so we need to improve support for carers and provide caring to encourage people to take up what is one of the most valuable roles, namely, caring for our older or infirm. In many cases, carers are themselves elderly, and in those cases we have to be mindful of the carer's welfare and well-being as well as that of the person being cared for.

Unfortunately, however, not everyone can be cared for in the home and, as I said, some older people may make a decision that they want to go to a form of nursing home or assisted living. We need to ensure there are adequate nursing home beds. We can all give examples of State investment, such as in St. Anne's nursing home in Clifden, where €35 million is committed and planning permission is granted, which will proceed, but there are also other examples where beds are empty because of staffing issues, whether in Áras Mhic Dara in An Cheathrú Rua, Galway, or other examples. We need to ensure there are adequate public beds and, obviously, private nursing homes have an important part to play as well. There is a worrying trend of local nursing homes closing for various reasons, mostly to do with the funding model for nursing homes, which has long been highlighted by many in their representative bodies.

We also need to look at the fair deal scheme, and one of the commitments relates to reducing the timeline for decisions to be made on the scheme. For many of these issues over recent years, and certainly from ten years ago up to recently, we could say they were funding related. We did not have the funding to provide sufficient hours or to fast-track the fair deal scheme. Funding is not as much the issue now as are the staffing and the resourcing of the important roles such as carers that are committed to.

This motion, on which I compliment my party colleagues in Fine Gael, calls on the Government to do a range of things that are committed to under the programme for Government. This is something that came from our party manifesto and that of Fianna Fáil and the measures are now part of the programme for Government. There is a commitment by the Government and the Minister of State to enact them and I look forward to hearing how he foresees them being enacted, what his priorities are and how the actions, which we all want to see, which will be taken.

Dementia is another area that is talked about in the plan, which commits to looking at the establishment of 20 new dementia-specific day care centres. Dementia is a horrible disease and these people are additionally vulnerable. It is important that there be dementia-specific beds and day care centres and, again, in the case of St. Anne's nursing home in Clifden, which I mentioned, there will be dementia beds in that development, which is to be welcomed. We need to look at ring-fenced home care hours and funding for dementia-intensive home care packages and at doubling the funding for dementia day care in the home. Those are commitments under the programme for Government.

It was touched on earlier, and is part of the programme for Government, that we will continue to significantly increase the income disregard for carers. I know this is part of a different Minister's role but it is very important. We need to feed into that in the context of how it is going to be rolled out. It is going to happen over the lifetime of the Government and not in one fell swoop. Which citizens or specific cases are going to be prioritised? Will it be our disabled persons, which might be a commonsense place to start? These are questions we need to look at.