Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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992. To ask the Minister for Health his views on a report (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52796/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The National Positive Ageing Strategy is a high-level document outlining Ireland’s vision for ageing and older people and the national goals and objectives required to promote positive ageing. It is an over-arching cross-departmental policy that has influenced policy and service delivery across Government since its inception.

The National Positive Ageing Strategy contains a reference to the importance of good nutritional care for older people under National Goal 2: Support people as they age to maintain, improve, or manage their physical and mental health and wellbeing. Under National Goal 2, Objective 2.1 is to ‘Prevent and reduce disability, chronic disease and premature mortality as people age by supporting the development and implementation of policies to reduce associated lifestyle factors. Under this objective, an area for action (2.1.9) includes nutrition, which the Department of Health and HSE are taking lead responsibility for advancing.

Under the aegis of Sláintecare, on the 20th of October 2021, I launched a new €13m initiative called Healthy Communities. This new cross-government initiative will deliver increased health and wellbeing services to 19 community areas across Ireland. The programme will be delivered in partnership with the HSE, local authorities, local communities, statutory, voluntary and community groups.

One of the key components of the Healthy Communities Programme is the Healthy Food Made Easy (HFME) programme. This programme will provide user-friendly nutrition and cookery courses that help people increase their skills to implement a healthy diet, focus on age/health related needs, plan meals on a budget, and make it easy to cook meals.

The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) identified the need for a National Nutrition Policy for older persons that recognises the nutritional needs of older adults. This was published as part of their key findings report in 2017. TILDA collected further information on food consumption as part of their Wave 4 data collection in 2018 and will have more data on nutrition being released in 2022. The Department of Health will continue to work closely with TILDA in order to align their research with any prospective national strategies on ageing.