(Cavan) asked the Minister for Health if he will state how many applicants for admission to suitable institutions for mentally retarded children who are under 16 years of age have been on the waiting list for (a) one year, (b) two years, (c) three years and (d) longer than three years.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mentally Retarded Children.
25.
At 31st March, 1971, the figures were as follows: Under 1 year, 321; 1-2 years, 211; 2-3 years, 143; over 3 years, 220.
(Cavan): Does the Minister agree that his reply discloses an alarming and altogether unsatisfactory state of affairs in that there are hundreds of children waiting for over three years to get into a suitable institution because they are mentally retarded? I suggest it reflects a complete dereliction of duty on the part of the Minister and his Department.
I deny that absolutely. A plan has been in process of operation to provide these places ever since the report of the Commission on Mentally Handicapped. Places are being organised largely by religious orders and sometimes by lay associations. Planning is being undertaken on a regular and continuous basis. I have already given the House the arrangements to provide these places over three years. As regards the high number of those waiting for over three years, a number of these children unfortunately have multiple handicaps and I have asked the Consultative Council on the Mentally Handicapped, which I established some time ago, to look into this problem to see what can be done for such children where there is difficulty in persuading the managements of the institutions to take them. I have also asked the council to consider perhaps a more systematic approach to the use of residential places and suggested that they might consider setting up a central bureau so that accommodation would be reserved for those most in need. I am examining the situation of the comparatively large number who have been waiting over three years.
(Cavan): Surely the Minister would agree that when it was possible—and rightly so— to provide, within a few months, free post-primary education for thousands of children, it should be possible to provide accommodation for these less fortunate children who are mentally retarded in suitable homes or the best possible homes within a year and not keep them waiting, to the distress of themselves and their families, for as much as seven years in some cases.
I utterly disagree with the Deputy. It is an entirely different proposition to arrange places for severely and moderately handicapped children and to find religious orders willing to take on the work or extend the splendid work they are doing, to design and arrange for buildings and train the nursing and teaching staffs.
(Cavan): I suggest that the Minister and his Department are far too complacent and casual about it.
We cannot discuss this matter all day.
The figures the Minister has given represent the backlog of children awaiting admission to institutions for handicapped children. Does the Minister not accept that the number will be increasing all the time and does he think on the figures he has given the House that he will be able to reduce the waiting list for institutions for mentally handicapped children?
I have already given a reply to Members of the House on that entire subject and the fact that we are preparing 1,500 places which include places where adults may go, thus releasing places for children. We have followed exactly the advice of the Commission on Mentally Handicapped. I have no reason to suppose at the moment that we should revise their recommendation but if we have to revise a recommendation we shall do so.