asked the Minister for Health if he will state, in respect of institutions in the Twenty-Six Counties, the number of beds available for backward or mentally defective children, and the number of such children at present on the waiting list for admission to these institutions.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mentally Defective Children.
Accommodation at present exists for 2,045 mentally defective patients, and works now proceeding will provide an additional 431 beds. Plans are in course of preparation for the development of recently acquired properties so as to provide further accommodation for 614 persons.
As all the accommodation is provided in voluntary institutions and as applications are frequently made to more than one institution on behalf of an individual patient, it would not be practicable to prepare a comprehensive waiting list.
Has the Minister taken into account in the reply he has given the number of such cases in institutions where they are not properly accommodated?
What sort of institutions has the Deputy in mind?
Where adults and the type of patients referred to in the question are housed together.
The figure I have given the Deputy—2,045—refers to mentally defective patients in institutions designed for that particular type of patient.
May I ask the Minister whether he has ensured, in connection with these institutions and the efforts made to extend and improve existing facilities, that the West of Ireland and areas like it will have special institutions? At the moment most of the children concerned have to go to Louth or Dublin. I should like to ensure that facilities would be available as near to their own localities as possible.
That is in general accord with my policy in that matter.