The importance of addressing the issues relating to the economics\ud
and financing of long-term care for older people in Ireland cannot\ud
be over emphasised. This is because we are approaching a period\ud
when the numbers of old people are expected to increase significantly\ud
and the numbers of the very old will grow quite\ud
dramatically.\ud
For service providers this means that every effort must be made to\ud
ensure that a sufficient provision of high quality institutional care\ud
is available for those old people who require such care. More\ud
importantly perhaps, it means that adequate long-term care for the\ud
elderly in the community, as advocated by The Years Ahead report,\ud
should begin to materialise more effectively than has been the case\ud
since the publication of that report.\ud
In particular, we believe that it is short-sighted not to ensure much\ud
greater support to informal carers who provide the greater part of\ud
long-term care in the community. The numbers of carers may be at\ud
an historically high level and the opportunity to support them more\ud
effectively should not be squandered