Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Green Party for bringing this motion. At our Labour Party conference in March, my Labour Party colleague for Blackrock, Councillor Martha Fanning, brought a motion on this very topic. In her motion, she recognised the prevalence of loneliness in our society and she further noted that local authorities, as the custodians of many of our indoor and outdoor community spaces, should be central to a national plan to address loneliness. She called not only on our own conference but also on the Department of Health to develop a national plan aimed at addressing loneliness across all ages and backgrounds. I thank Councillor Fanning for the work she has done in this area, her very innovative thinking on the way local county councils operate, and her suggestions for the role local county councils have in being custodians of facilities and amenities which would help tackle loneliness.

We know loneliness is a major issue in our society and we need to develop a national plan to tackle it. Research published last summer showed that Ireland had the highest rate of loneliness across the whole of Europe, where 20% of people feel lonely most of the time compared with an average of 13% across Europe. It is very hard to think that one in five of us feel lonely all of the time. That is a very dismal figure. The US Surgeon General published an advisory in 2023 called Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation with the subtitle The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community. He stated:

Loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling — it harms both individual and societal health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity. And the harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished.

That document, as well as others on this side of the Atlantic, noted the significant linkage of loneliness and isolation to depression and mental health difficulties and to diseases such as Parkinson's, diabetes, cancer, strokes and even early death. This is a very concerning list of things.

The first ever EU-wide survey on loneliness found that, on average, 30% of respondents reported feeling lonely most of the time over the past four weeks, while 35% reported being lonely at least some of the time. As I have already said, Ireland has the highest levels. The report from this survey provides evidence for the strong association between loneliness, poor mental health and physical health. Results show that individuals feeling lonely most or all of the time are three times as likely to assess their health status as poor. The report also shows a correlation between excessive use of social networking sites and feelings of loneliness. Intense use of social media, defined as spending two hours or more a day on social networking sites - I am sure that possibly sends a shock through many of us - is on average associated with an increase of 6.1 percentage points in the prevalence of loneliness. This finding is in line with the idea that social networking sites may contribute to a displacement of face-to-face interactions. Furthermore, the report highlighted that lonely individuals are more likely to exhibit reduced trust in and to withdraw from political participation. Those feeling lonely are less likely to trust others, at 27%, and are more likely not to vote, at 42%. Addressing loneliness may therefore help to promote civic engagement and social cohesion in communities.

In September of last year, the Loneliness Taskforce, whose members include Alone, Mental Health Reform and the Disability Federation of Ireland, called for funding of €5 million to address loneliness in budget 2024. It was concerned that the Government was not living up to its commitment to tackle loneliness. The task force stated:

Loneliness must be addressed by tackling the root causes at the structural, community and individual level, across all age groups and demographics, and particularly to those cohorts most at risk of loneliness and isolation, including carers, LGBTQ+ people, younger people, people with disabilities and members of the international community residing in Ireland. The Loneliness Taskforce has repeatedly offered our support to the Department of Health to develop an action plan. This offer has not been taken up to date.

As public representatives, it is very important as we see loneliness all around us. All of us have received a phone call from someone who very clearly just wants to talk. All of us have been caught in a door and we are always told not to be caught in a door chatting, but actually many of us are being caught in a door because someone is genuinely lonely. There is any number of times I have been brought into a house or just asked to sit down, where I have sometimes wondered if these are Opposition people trying to cause me to delay my way at doors, but sometimes they are just actually very lonely people. I have had some of the best chats of my life on those doors with those people, so I try to give that kindness on doors when someone is trying to chat to me and not always to go in with a suspicious eye that someone is trying to catch me out.

From our teens, we have seen teenagers struggling and this has been reflected here since Covid. There are thirtysomethings who are stuck in their parents' boxroom and the loneliness of that. Office workers are missing out on social interaction as a result of hybrid working. It is so important we rebuild social connections in our communities.

Our local authorities are responsible for many of our indoor and outdoor public spaces.These spaces offer the opportunity for social connections. Councils are at the heart of our communities and must be at the heart of a national plan to tackle loneliness. We have invested in smoking cessation programmes and programmes to understand and tackle obesity. We must now invest in understanding and tackling loneliness and we need a national plan to combat loneliness. Without making light of this incredibly serious topic, Britney Spears was absolutely correct when she said, "My loneliness is killing me". This topic is of the utmost importance and it has serious, life-limiting consequences. I urge the Government to take this Green Party motion with the utmost seriousness, and really begin to tackle this awful social and health issue.