asked the Taoiseach if he will consider placing the entire responsibility for handicapped children in one Department instead of the present unsatisfactory position of having divided responsibility between the Departments of Health and Education.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mentally Handicapped Children.
6.
I do not accept that the present position is unsatisfactory.
The care of mentally handicapped persons is a rapidly developing service and has both a health and an educational aspect. The provision of care and treatment for all classes of mentally handicapped persons as in-patients of institutions has traditionally been developed under the Department of Health, which has also accepted certain responsibility for the provision of medical and nursing services for the severely handicapped and the moderately handicapped children who attend clinics or day centres. The Department of Education has been responsible for the education in school subjects of the mildly handicapped and those among the moderately handicapped who can benefit from such education. This responsibility has been discharged by the provision of school accommodation and trained teaching staffs in conjunction with both the in-patient and outpatient facilities. The association of the two Departments of State with this problem has not, in practice, been found to inhibit the development of the services. A similar association between the two Departments is of long standing, for example, in the institutional care of children with orthopaedic or other physical defects or ailments, and has been a profitable one.
A Commission of Inquiry on Mental Handicap which was appointed by the Minister for Health is expected to report within the next two months or so. The question whether the existing arrangements as between the two Departments should be altered will be considered when this Report has been received and examined.
Is the Taoiseach aware that there seems to be no definite line between where the functions of the Department of Health cease and where the functions of the Department of Education begin?
I do not agree with that.
Much hardship and neglect arises from that. I am referring principally to the difficulty of getting these children to these special schools. Both Departments say it is not their function. In Clondalkin alone, we have at the moment eight such children who are suitable for admission but cannot be got to these special day schools.
I suggest that the Deputy put down a question to the Minister for Education.
The Deputy is most dishonest.
The Deputy is honest in this matter and the Minister knows that well.
In Limerick we have to hold flag days and go around from door to door to try to get these children to school.
There is no transport to get these children to school.
There was none in your day and they might as well be dead and buried for all you cared.
We will have it out in Cork.