It is also a reminder that, despite the efforts of institutions like Marymount, we, as a nation, are sleepwalking into trouble in the years ahead, when it comes to caring for the elderly. Compared to many other European countries, Ireland still has a relatively young population, but it has been getting steadily older since the mid-1980s. The latest census figures, compiled in 2016, reveal that 37.2% are aged 45 and over, compared with 34.4% in 2011 and 27.6% in 1986. In 1986, 33.2% of the population was less than 25 years old, while 29.5% of it was in the 25-44 age group. That meant there was a significant number of working-age people who could, through taxes, fund services for the children and the elderly.

But now, that balance is shifting and projections suggest that the favourable ratios between younger and older persons will be reversed in the decades ahead. Studies have estimated that, within 12 years, a quarter-of-a-million citizens will be aged 80 years or older.

In a report in 2017, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) projected that by 2030, the population aged 80 or above would increase by between 89% and 94%. Further studies, by the Central Statistics Office and the Department of Public Expenditure, show similar projections.

“Additional investment will be required in most forms of care to meet the needs of a rapidly growing and ageing population,” the ESRI warned three years ago, yet there is little evidence that the Government has been listening or taking seriously the implications of those dramatic demographic changes.

The workers of today will age and live longer than their counterparts of the 1970s and 1980s, bringing increasing pressure on our already hard-pressed health and care facilities. Indeed, a Department of Health report last December shows that life expectancy in Ireland has risen by two-and-a-half years since 2007. Facilities like Marymount can only serve so many. Last June, the Marymount board launched an ambitious, seven-year strategic plan that includes ensuring the financial sustainability of its services. However, it is doing so in the midst of a funding crisis.

In November 2018, the Marymount board wrote to Health Minister Simon Harris to say it was operating at a “significant loss” due to financial pressures caused by pay restoration and that, without additional funding, it would not be able to maintain its current level of service.

Marymount is the designated specialist care centre for the Cork/Kerry region, serving a population of 600,000. It receives almost half its income from voluntary fundraising and some corporate donations, but it needs more State support.