Having just come from the Chambers Ireland briefing on businesses, I want to take the opportunity to wish the new Kildare Chamber CEO, Cliodhna O'Byrne, well. We have a very active chamber. It does an excellent job under the leadership of Ruth Murphy and it excels in representing the many businesses we have, small as well as large. It is very conscious of the cost of business and what we need to do to support our indigenous businesses in particular. I note the publication during the summer of the cost of business advisory forum report, which set out 63 recommendations to boost competitiveness and cut costs. The report is very practical. Key actionable priorities were set out by the Department, including cutting administrative red tape and enhancing financial competition. The forum said it would meet in another six months to look for progress but we need to have a debate in this House with the Minister, Deputy Burke. This is really important and I think we would all support it.

Yesterday, I hosted a briefing in the audiovisual room with Age Alliance Ireland. This is a really strong organisation which consists of eight different groups that work with older people both on an individual basis and collectively. One thing that really stood out to me was that there are only two specialist fall clinics for the whole of Ireland. Over 62,000 older adults need medical care for falls annually, yet one in five has no access to a clinic. The Minister and the HSE urgently need to look at that care gap. As we all know, a fall for an older person is not just a minor medical emergency. It can be so much more and can be life altering. I would like the opportunity to have a debate with the Minister of State with responsibility for older people or the Minister for Health.

Having recently battled shingles during the recess, I can personally attest to just how debilitating and painful this illness can be. My immediate priority is to get the shingles vaccine as soon as I can, but I have to wait 12 months to make sure that I am protected against a recurrence. My experience underscores the very pressing need we should have to expand our preventative healthcare for older people. We do really well with our child immunisation scheme but we do not do so well for adults. Prior to this, I had been lobbying for a shingles vaccination for over 65s, particularly because of the 20% extra protection against dementia it can provide, but RSV is also really important and we need to have a debate on that.