asked the Minister for Health the steps which will be taken to remedy the legacy of neglect in relation to mental hospitals which he mentioned at St. Brendan's Hospital, Dublin on 14th October last; and when these steps will be taken.
30.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mental Hospitals.
29.
asked the Minister for Health if he will elaborate on his recent statement on how badly mental hospitals were neglected in the past, indicating why this neglect was allowed to continue; and what plans he has to remedy the matter.
Mr. O'Malley
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 29 and 30 together.
The Deputies are, I presume, referring to a portion of a speech of mine which was criticised in a recent editorial in the Sunday Independent. The same editorial said, and I quote: “We feel sure that some eagle-eyed Opposition Deputy, like Oliver Flanagan or Richie Ryan, will seize on it and ask the Minister ...” and so on. And, sure enough, the Deputies duly did what they were told.
My speech was delivered at St. Brendan's Hospital, Grangegorman, on 14th October last and was, among other things, a serious effort to encourage and stimulate further improvements in the mental health services.
In it due acknowledgment was made for improvements carried out in mental hospitals in recent years as will be evidenced from the following quotation: "Improvements have, however, been taking place all the time—in some hospitals more rapidly and more markedly than others—and I am told, by persons who are in a position to cast their minds back 10, 15 or 20 years in the service, that the cumulative effect of the improvements which have taken place since, say, the end of the war, is quite startling."
In order that the Deputies may be fully informed about what I said on that occasion, I have arranged to send copies of my speech to them.
The Minister should provide the light relief at the opening of Cork Opera House.
Will the Minister say if he is now in the House disowning his predecessor, Deputy MacEntee, who is primarily responsible for the legacy to which the Minister refers?
Mr. O'Malley
I should like to point out that my predecessor has on many occasions referred in more or less similar terms to the serious conditions we inherited in many of these mental hospitals. I want to quote what my predecessor said:
We must all, Ministers and their staffs, and mental hospital authorities and theirs, together with the community as a whole, carry a share of responsibility for the conditions to which I have referred. If I have laid heavy emphasis on existing defects, I have done so only in order to bring home to us all the magnitude of the task which is before us and to impress ourselves with the urgency of the need to attack it.
While we all are most impressed by what the Minister and his predecessor said, is the Minister aware of the grave disappointment expressed in the Sunday Independent that practice has not been as influential as words?
Mr. O'Malley
We do not all take our marching orders from the Sunday Independent.
I should like to ask the Minister what he means by "inherited"? Surely he knows it is 33 years since Fianna Fáil came to power in 1932 with a cure for all our ills.
Is it not a fact that the Minister was just having a crack at his predecessor so that he could, from now on, be described as the white-headed boy who was doing something whilst Deputy MacEntee did nothing?
Mr. O'Malley
Nothing could be further from the truth.
More power to you!
Why take a mean advantage of a colleague?