Former Northern Ireland Minister, Lord Dubs and eighteen colleagues from the British and Irish Parliaments and Northern Ireland Assembly persuade British Irish Parliamentary Assembly to back action plan for dementia friendly travel

Thousands of journeys are made between Britain and Ireland each year. Many of these are by older Irish travelling home as they have always done, some for more than fifty years. They travel home for family events, celebrations, christenings, weddings and funerals.

However, once the travel experience becomes affected by dementia fewer journeys are made; and when people are still in the early stages of dementia there is no reasons why, given a more dementia friendly environment, they should not be able to continue to travel between the two countries. That was our message to the British – Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) at their March Plenary meeting in Dublin where the Irish in Britain motion was submitted.

Pressing for progress for those in our community who suffer from memory loss is central to the work of Irish in Britain. We are the first migrant organisation in Britain to establish a ‘whole community’ dementia strategy. Our strategy, Cuimhne (pronounced queev’na) aims to engage Irish families, businesses, welfare services as well as the mainstream British dementia organisations (such as Alzheimer’s Society, Age UK) to work together to improve the lifestyles and experiences of older people with dementia. Our strategy has been endorsed by the Prime Minister David Cameron, Jeremey Hughes, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Society and the Irish Ambassador Dan Mulhall.

Irish in Britain are working to meet this challenge.

In the 2011 census 204,000 people who ticked the Irish box were 60 years old or over, with a further 80,000 between 50–60 years of age. A further 11% of the Irish Community provide some level of care to family members or friends. Using the government estimates on the numbers who will develop dementia we can estimate that approximately 22,240 Irish people in Britain are likely to develop dementia. If we assume about 70% have a family carer more than 38,000 individuals will be affected.

This BIPA motion is the latest step towards making travel between Britain and Ireland dementia friendly and is firmly secured within our Cuimhne campaign and strategy for those suffering from memory loss and dementia.

We would like to thank the British and Irish parliamentarians that sponsored the Motion on Dementia friendly travel moved by Lord Dubs. Our thanks to:

UK Parliament: Baroness (May) Blood; Oliver Colvile MP; Jim Dobbin MP; Baroness (Dee) Doocey; Paul Flynn MP; Stephen Lloyd MP; Paul Murphy MP; Chris Ruane MP; Jim Sheridan MP

Northern Ireland Assembly: Barry McElduff MLA; Sean Rogers MLA

Dail Eireann: Sean Crowe TD; Frank Feighan TD; Cait Keane TD; Patrick O’Donovan TD; Joe O’Reilly TD; Angus O Snoddaigh TD; Arthur Spring TD