I welcome the opportunity to speak today on dementia. Like many others, I want to extend a particularly warm welcome to Jordan and Cian Adams, the FTB Brothers. I commend them on all their fundraising work and advocacy. Today, we remember their beloved mother, Geraldine. There are 64,000 people living with dementia in Ireland today. Around 11,000 people receive a diagnosis every single year. There are 30 new cases every single day. By 2045, the estimated number will grow from 64,000 to approximately 150,000 people. Behind every one of those numbers is a person, a family and a story. Before I go any further, I also want to acknowledge the fantastic work and advocacy of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, many of whom are in the Gallery today, including their CEO, Mr. Andy Heffernan, and the head of operations and community engagement, Ms Siobhan O'Connor. The ASI is the leading dementia-specific service provider in this country. Its staff, branches and, indeed, volunteers work in the heart of every single community right across the island. On behalf of the families of Dún Laoghaire in my constituency who they have supported, I want to thank them. I am also very proud to be a member of the all-party Oireachtas committee in the Oireachtas, ably led by Senator O'Loughlin and Deputy Lawlor. I thank and commend them on their work as well. Some €21.27 million has been provided for new funding for dementia services since 2021, including a further €2.27 million in the budget of 2026. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on her advocacy, long before she took high office, in making sure the all-party Oireachtas committee operated here in the Oireachtas but also secured so much funding when she went into Government. There are now 60 dementia day care centres, 25 memory clinics and 37 dementia advisers across the country. Three memory assessment and support services are operated in Cavan-Monaghan, Mayo and Sligo and they saw almost 500 new patients last year. Seven more are committed to under the HSE national service plan for 2026. Four regional specialist memory clinics saw over 1,400 new patients in 2025, with a fifth to open in north Dublin. The national dementia registry will be piloted next year, which is very welcome news. This year, a minimum of 22% of all new home support hours will go to people with dementia or a cognitive impairment, up 20% on last year. That is real, measurable progress. I want to speak about what it looks like in my constituency in Dún Laoghaire. It is the home of the finest dementia services in the country. We have St. Joseph's Centre in Shankill, which is Ireland's only care home dedicated to people living with dementia. It is home to 60 residents living in six household-style lodges rather than hospital wards. It is a very special place. Its daycare club welcomes 24 people every day and it provides much needed respite for family carers. It also runs Buddy's Place café, which I had the pleasure of attending when it opened. Anyone who visits St. Joseph's, as I have, will know it is not an institution. It is a home to those residents. In Blackrock, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland runs the Orchard Respite Centre out of Temple Road, providing dementia-specific care and overnight respite alongside the society's national coffee'n'chat and freephone helpline. The Southside Partnership's living well with dementia programme has also been running since 2012. It is funded by the HSE. Its Sweet Memories Choir, exercise classes, bridge club and arts group keep people connected to their community and it is supported by almost 40 volunteers. Its motto says it all: "See the person, not their Dementia". Those service are complemented by the HSE's Memory Harbour, which is run by occupational therapists across our local health centres and the memory clinic at St. Columcille's Hospital in Loughlinstown. This is what good community dementia care looks like - diagnosis, daycare, respite home support and social connection, and all close to where people live. Our task is to make that standard everywhere. I know the Minister of State is committed to that. For all the progress, families tell me the same three things: daycare places are limited, there are caring waiting lists and respite is scarce. Too many people wait for too long. The ASI pre-budget submission seeks €8.23 million to expand day care, home care and young onset supports. It is a costed, practical, reasonable support. I welcome the commitment in the programme for Government. I also ask the Minister of State to meet the ASI as soon as possible and to make progress on its pre-budget submission. I also ask that the next phase of the memory assessment and support services reaches the east coast so that people in Dún Laoghaire and across our region can access diagnosis and post-diagnostic support in their own community. In October, Dublin will host the Alzheimer Europe conference during Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union and over 1,200 delegates will come to our capital. Let us use that moment to show that Ireland leads on dementia in policy, in research and, above all, in care.

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Hear, hear.

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