asked the Minister for Health when it is expected to have adequate accommodation available for mentally handicapped children.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mentally Handicapped Children: Accommodation.
2.
There are serious difficulties in the way of making adequate provision for the needs, including accommodation in suitable institutions, of the mentally handicapped.
I have been giving considerable thought to the general problem of the mentally handicapped, and have recently had a White Paper published on the subject. As the Deputy may see from reading that Paper, the subject as a whole needs a great deal of study. As regards accommodation, there are 2,620 beds now available, and a further 600 beds are in prospect. It is estimated that as many as 4,000 further beds may be needed, the capital cost of which might come to between £5 millions and £7 millions. It would be quite impossible at the present time, or in the foreseeable future, to make funds of this order available for the purpose.
In any event, as is indicated in the recent White Paper, there are other problems involved—the best type and size of accommodation, the location of centres, the development of day or similar centres, the facilities for diagnosis of mental handicap, the type or standard of training of nursing and other staffs and questions of placement in jobs and after-care. All these problems, apart from the formidable difficulty of finding sufficient money, need further study before the best possible answers to them can be found. The Commission of Inquiry which I propose to set up shortly will be asked to examine the matter thoroughly.
Meanwhile, the developments aimed at providing substantial additions to present accommodation will proceed. These are outlined in the White Paper.
Has the Minister's attention been drawn to the fact that the Minister for Education contemplates changing the purpose for which five of the preparatory colleges have been used heretofore? Would it be feasible to use some at least of these preparatory colleges for the accommodation of children in this category, even if only as an interim measure, in view of the fact that, as the Minister knows and we all know, there are a considerable number of households in which children are awaiting institutional treatment of this kind and cannot get it because there is not room for them in the existing institutions?
I understand the Minister for Education can find sufficient use for these preparatory colleges by amplifying the accommodation already available for secondary education.
It occurred to me that probably the five colleges, whose present user the Minister was terminating, could be converted to the other purpose while suitable accommodation is being built or created elsewhere. Might it not be possible, ad interim, with the transfer of the existing amenities of these colleges, to use them if suitable religious orders, or bodies of persons, were available to man one or two of these colleges to relieve some of the urgent necessity for accommodation of children already declared eligible and for whom the local authorities stand ready to give accommodation if it were available?
I think the Deputy has put his finger on a very important consideration in the latter part of his supplementary question. Apart from the fact that we have not got sufficient accommodation, we have not the personnel to staff these institutions. If I could be assured of getting one religious order with the necessary background and experience to staff an institution I could consider the question of making accommodation available.
And securing admission for them.
And securing admission for them.