Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I congratulate him on his appointment and wish him the best of luck. I thank Fine Gael for bringing forward this excellent Private Members' motion. It was well thought out, so well done lads.

We, in Fianna Fáil, welcome this debate and the fact the Government is supporting the motion. Fianna Fáil is committed to making sure that all of us can age well, with dignity and support. We want people to stay in their own homes for as long as possible but with the correct supports. Since coming into Government in 2020, Fianna Fáil has expanded home care hours, day care services, at-home dementia care and meals on wheels. We also established a commission on care for older people to identify the best ways to support ageing and we are committed to implementing the recommendations. Dementia services are a key priority for us in Fianna Fáil with 32 new cases of dementia diagnosed every day across this country. We have already set up 53 dementia day care centres, 25 memory clinics and more than 30 dementia advisers. At the moment, there are three dementia-friendly towns. However, we are determined to do more.

Every effort must be made to ensure that people can stay in their home as long as they want to with the correct supports. Ultimately, this costs the State less and so is a win-win. While acknowledging the contribution of older people, may I also acknowledge the contribution of those who care for the older person, both paid and unpaid? Carers play a crucial role and must be looked after and acknowledged.

I also acknowledge the work done in the many local district hospitals throughout the country. Many of these, including the one in Bandon, could do with extra capacity. It would be great if there was an extension to the one in Bandon. I presume that is true of many across the country.

We need to plan for an ageing population as people are now living much longer. Nursing homes will form a big part of this and need our support as legislators. I support the strengthening of our nursing home sector and increased funding for the fair deal scheme and we must ensure the waiting list does not exceed four weeks. These things often happen in a hurry and we need to act swiftly on them. We need to build more public nursing home beds. The NTPF review of the pricing systems must be published early this year, which we are well into, and must work towards the funding model for the nursing home sector.

We need to provide a career pathway for healthcare assistants with perhaps better training, higher wages and better status. They are often run ragged trying to get from one place to the next. Better working conditions for them would be very welcome.

I hope the Seanad acknowledges the contribution older people have made to Irish society by raising their families, through their work, both voluntary and paid, and through their charitable endeavours during their lives. I support the programme for Government commitment to publish, resource and implement a national action plan for long-term care of our elderly and its commitment to increase the income disregards for carer’s allowance in each budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of this Government.