Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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1539. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to establish a forum for all stakeholders to address and plan for an ageing population; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28804/17]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The National Positive Ageing Strategy (NPAS), published on 24 April 2013, provides a framework for cooperation to address age-related policy and service delivery across Government and society in the years ahead. The Strategy is intended to promote older people’s health and well being so that older people can continue to contribute to social, economic, cultural and family life in their own communities for as long as possible, thereby representing a vision for an age-friendly society. The Strategy highlights that ageing is not just a health issue, but rather requires a whole of Government approach to address a range of social, economic and environmental factors that affect the health and wellbeing of our ageing citizens.

At the launch of the Strategy, a commitment was made to publish an Implementation Plan to facilitate the translation of the Goals and Objectives of the Strategy into action on the ground. The approach to implementation originally included in the Strategy would have worked where a finite number of discrete and concrete steps could be taken after which the implementation could be deemed complete. However, many of the objectives included in this Strategy are quite broad, and can be viewed as a set of principles to which Government has committed, and which will inform policies that affect older people on an indefinite basis into the future, rather than concrete objectives that can be delivered in the short term.

The Department has therefore formulated new arrangements to implement and monitor the implementation of the National Positive Ageing Strategy. The revised arrangements were approved by the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy and Public Service Reform on 27 October, 2016.

The new arrangements establish mechanisms that will give stakeholder groups effective and on-going access to Government Departments and State Agencies relevant to older people. This includes an annual Forum for stakeholders to identify what they consider to be their key priorities for Government for the coming year and the next three years; and establishing clear channels of communications between stakeholders and relevant Government Departments. In this regard, stakeholder representatives will engage with a named senior official on issues relevant to their remit, in order that the priorities identified by the stakeholders at the Forum can be pursued.

The inaugural stakeholder Forum took place on 30th March 2017, and was attended by civic society organisations who are representative of the needs and views of older people in Ireland. Following on from this successful Forum, the Department of Health has opened a dialogue with each of the Government Departments identified as having responsibility for the priorities agreed by stakeholders, in order that they are aware of the issues for discussion prior to being contacted by a stakeholder representative group. The Department of Health recently met with this stakeholder representative group, and will meet with them again in late 2017 to establish progress made and assist with any issues arising.

As part of the NPAS implementation process, a Healthy and Positive Ageing Initiative has been established in collaboration with the HSE’s Health and Wellbeing Programme and the Atlantic Philanthropies to measure the impact of the Strategy and establish an ongoing system for measuring and reporting on Positive Ageing. The Initiative will monitor changes in older people’s health and wellbeing linked to the Goals and Objectives of the National Positive Ageing Strategy. This will be done primarily through the development of Positive Ageing indicators to be published every two years. The Initiative is intended to provide evidence of the factors contributing to positive ageing, including at local level and ultimately inform policy responses to population ageing in Ireland. The first national Positive Ageing Indicators report was published in 2016 and highlights many of the positive and negative aspects of growing old in Ireland.

The National Positive Ageing Strategy and the activities of the HaPAI are strongly embedded within the vision and actions set out for Healthy Ireland, the Government-led initiative which aims to create an Irish society where people of all ages can enjoy good physical and mental health,and where wellbeingis supported at every level of society. The Healthy Ireland Framework was launched in 2013 and seeks to provide people and communities withaccurate information on how to improve their health and wellbeing and to make the healthy choices easier choices. Healthy Ireland takes a whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approach to improving health and wellbeing and the quality of people’s lives and a number of new structures have been put in place to ensure that all sectors of society are given opportunities to participate.