I thank Deputy Carrigy for instigating this session this afternoon. I also welcome our visitors in the Gallery. The contribution of family carers, home support workers, volunteers, community cafés such as Dunshaughlin Pastoral Centre, Yvonne here in the restaurant and Friday club, while not specifically an Alzheimer's service, does fantastic work along with Ratoath Community Centre and advocacy groups such as ASI. They are crucial supports to people living with dementia. I must not forget Whistlemount Day Centre in Navan for the phenomenal support it provides. However, it is worrying that the number of people living with dementia is projected to approximately double in the next 20 years. There is a deficit of health data. The services and supports must be planned and budgeted for. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and his predecessor, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on their actions to date and their plans going forward. They are highly commendable. I will try to be proactive and hopeful. I will share with the House the fifth and lesser known pillar of health. The results of decades of scientific studies explain why the arts, alongside diet, sleep, exercise and nature are the forgotten fifth pillar of health. In the past 20 years, dozens of studies on cognitive leisure activities, including doing crafts, learning musical instruments and engaging in cultural pursuits, including listening to music and singing, have shown a relationship with better preservation of cognition and reduced risk of cognitive problems, as manifest in dementia. The reduction is significant - around 30% for developing cognitive impairment, 23% for all-cause dementia and 34% for Alzheimer's disease. Arts are linked to demonstrable neurological changes in the brain, lower deposits of amyloid beta, and lower numbers of lesions in the white matter of the brain. A total of 85% of people want to live at home for as long as possible if they are diagnosed with dementia. There are simple interventions for temporal orientation. Using colour, matt finishes on floor surfaces, playing birdsong in the morning and calming music in the evening can all reduce confusion related to spatial orientation, falls, aggression and violence, and can perhaps reduce the need for antipsychotic medication. These can all be incorporated into the design of age-friendly homes. I raise intergenerational music sessions, and we spoke about young people and their involvement earlier. These are also pivotal. It could be listening only, listening and singing, singing along or watching a choir. These will all help improve the multiple memory systems from episodic, semantic to implicit memory. There is a US health study - I cannot put my finger on the exact journal reference - that has shown that for every $1 invested in music therapy, $2.4 is saved in support costs. I will happily refer the Minister of State to an excellent book called Art cure. I have referenced it in this House previously. I have no commercial interest or otherwise in it but it is an excellent reference source. It is the science of how the arts transform our health by professor of psychobiology at University College London, Daisy Fancourt. It is a combination of approaches that I believe are required, as well as cross-community involvement, which has been so ably demonstrated by Cian and Jordan and their phenomenal support team, no doubt inspired by their dear mum looking on from above them as many have referenced. I thank colleagues for their contributions as well. It is seldom that we share moments of shared learning and empathy in the cut and thrust of politics.

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