I, too, would like to welcome Cian and Jordan and thank them for everything they have done. They have captured the hearts of everybody. When they were in Kilkenny, the size of the crowd spoke for itself. Well done. It is all in aid of dementia awareness and research. The crowd that turned out for them in Carlow and Kilkenny just speaks a thousand words. Very few of us do not know somebody living with dementia or a family grappling with the daily challenges of caring for a loved one with the condition. Everyday tasks like paying bills, preparing meals, remembering appointments, and getting from place to place become increasingly difficult. More than 64,000 people and their families are living with this as their daily reality, and that number is set to double over the next 20 years. It is vital that the State takes a proactive approach to supporting those with dementia, ensuring they can remain in their own homes, in the environment they know and where they feel safe and secure, for as long as possible. We must protect their independence for as long as we possibly can. In 2014, the national dementia strategy was published. Over a decade later, little progress has been made. Services remain fragmented and underresourced. We need to see ambition and urgency from the Minister of State, and an updated strategy that will not, like so many others, be left to gather dust on a shelf. It should be a strategy acted upon with the determination this issue demands. Time and again, this Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government has failed to care for older people, despite warning after warning from report after report. How is it that this Government still has not implemented a statutory home care scheme? This a scheme the Government made so much noise about when it was announced, and yet here we are with no scheme in place. It needs to be prioritised. This is about ensuring appropriate care at home and, crucially, recognising the varying levels of care and support that people require. The failure to expand home support hours and the failure to recruit more home care assistants mean a crisis is now hitting this sector. In Kilkenny hospital alone, over 3,500 bed days are lost each year due to delayed transfers of care. Simply put, this is because of a chronic shortage of home care assistants in the community. There is a lady in Kilkenny hospital who was admitted on 27 February. Tomorrow, she will have been in hospital for 19 weeks. With support from us, she got access Monday to Friday. The answer now is that an ambulance will take her out of the hospital for Saturday and Sunday and bring her to a nursing home and back. This lady has dementia. She is 99 and a half years old. That is shocking in this day and age. How can the Government stand over this carry-on?

Sentiment score: 0.16