Healthcare Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG), Dún Laoghaire

The Healthy Ireland framework provides a number of strategies to ensure everyone in Ireland can enjoy good health as they age, including the national physical activity framework and the obesity policy and action plan. One in three older women and one in five men are affected by osteoporosis. In 2023, the Department published healthy eating guidelines for adults aged 65 and over, which emphasise the importance of a healthy diet for older adults to maintain muscle mass and bone strength to support independent living. A HSE fracture liaison service pathway developed by the National Clinical Programme for Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery promotes preventative community-based care as opposed to a reliance on reactive medicine, in line with Sláintecare reform.
This year my Department approved funding to the HSE to pilot a scalable, multidisciplinary falls and frailty prevention service for women aged 65 plus in Mayo, Galway, and Roscommon. This service particularly targets older women at increased risk of falling, frailty, mobility issues, fear of falling, chronic conditions or reduced function post-hospitalisation. The overall aim is to reduce falls and fractures and the demand for treatment and long-stay care in acute services. Falls assessments, along with osteoporosis drug treatments, are essential for fracture risk reduction and these are being progressed through the community access to diagnostics scheme and the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013.
We are also investing and supporting a range of different forms of exercise in the community. I do not wish to name communities but I have seen projects in Sligo, in my own constituency and in Limerick, which are encouraging safe exercise among people of all ages to develop their muscle mass and bone strength in a way that is not likely to lead to any injuries, but only to rejuvenation and greater strength. That is a hugely important part of living well as we age.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05