asked the Minister for Health when funding will be provided to provide staff for the fully equipped ten-bed bungalow, Glencorry, at St. Michael's House, Ballymun, Dublin, particularly in view of the fact that there is a waiting list of at least 300 mentally handicapped in immediate need of residential care.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Services for Mentally Handicapped.
9.
Between July 1980 and December 1982 my Department approved of the recruitment of 52 staff to enable the new centre at St. Michael's House, Ballymun to become operational. This was done despite the general restrictions on the recruitment of additional personnel in the health services.
In October 1984 I met with a delegation from St. Michael's House when I discussed the difficulties being experienced by the organisation. Following this meeting, I increased their 1985 revenue allocation by £150,000 to alleviate the burden of their commitments.
Could the Minister be a little more specific? Is he aware that there is a fully equipped ten-bed facility for the mentally handicapped, to provide residential care at St. Michael's House, Ballymun? That facility is not being used simply because there is not the necessary funding to provide the resident staff. Is it intended to provide sufficient funding to allow St. Michael's House to employ the staff to bring this facility into operation?
In so far as I was directly concerned in December 1982, as part of the exemption to the embargo on the recruitment of staff in the mentally handicapped services, I approved the recruitment of 30 extra staff to enable the remaining three units to be commissioned in Saint Michael's House. That was quite an exceptional change of policy at the time. Then, in October 1984, I met a delegation from St. Michael's when the difficulties facing the house became evident because they had recruited additional staff without the approval of the Department. As a consequence of reviewing that situation in 1985 we allocated another £150,000 to meet the costs of pay of those staff which had been met heretofore from private resources within St. Michael's. Officers of my Department will be discussing these matters with St. Michael's House shortly with a view to resolving all of the difficulties within the limits of their 1985 allocation.
The only point I would make to organisations such as St. Michael's House is that they should keep in the closest touch with my Department so that we and they know what is going on.
The Minister is well aware of this facility. I raised it in the House not so long ago. It seems to me to be a matter of public scandal that there are so many hundreds of persons who are mentally handicapped on the priority waiting lists of the health board for residential care who cannot get that residential care simply because the accommodation is not available. It is a matter of public scandal that, in that context, there is a fully equipped facility available in St. Michael's House while all that is required for it to be brought into use is that the Minister sanction sufficient funding to allow St. Michael's House to staff that facility. I might ask this specific question of the Minister: does he intend to provide sufficient funding to St. Michael's House for the specific requirement of staffing the facility to which I have referred in my question? The Minister has failed to answer that specific question on the Order Paper which I have asked twice already.
It is certainly not from failure to ask that it has not been answered, if it has not been answered.
Thank you for your assistance, A Cheann Comhairle,——
I do not intend to be helpful. I intend to point out the position.
That is a new policy, A Cheann Comhairle, that you do not intend to be helpful.
It is not the role of the Chair to be helpful or unhelpful to a Deputy.
It is the role of the Chair to be helpful at all times, just as we are helpful to you.
The present position is that I do not have at present a detailed request from St. Michael's for further staff. I have made available an additional £150,000 for 1985 to enable St. Michael's to pay the staff they recruited without formal sanction; they were paying them privately. I am quite prepared to discuss with St. Michael's House any additional moneys they might need for 1985 but they have received a substantial increase. I have to balance their needs with, for example, the opening of Cheeverstown, where we are spending an additional £1 million this year, on the south side of the city, on their catchment area. I can assure the Deputy there has been no shortage of funds for St. Michael's, and that their capacity to twist arms is quite substantial.
This is positively the final question, Deputy.
Unforunately the Minister is not proving to be as helpful as yourself, a Cheann Comhairle.
I want to point out that the Chair cannot allow argument on each question.
I am not attempting to argue the point. I will simply ask the Minister and hope for a reply: will he undertake to contact St. Michael's House, or have officials of his Department, to contact them to establish whether the details I have given are correct? If they are correct will the Minister give a commitment to take action to provide the necessary staff for this very badly needed facility?
I can assure the Deputy that I will do just that and I will write to him about it.
10.
asked the Minister for Health the plans he has for the development of services for the mentally handicapped.
My views in relation to the development of services for people with mental handicap are contained in the Government Green Paper on Services for Disabled People — Towards a Full Life — with which I am sure the Deputy is familiar. I have also invited the views of agencies involved in the provision of services and their response to the Green Paper will, of course, be taken into full account when formulating policy on mental handicap issues.
This is part of the on-going dialogue which is a feature of the relationship which I and my Department have with groups involved in the provision of mental handicap services.
The Minister stated that his policy was fully outlined in the Green Paper on Services for Disabled People — Towards a Full Life. In reply to an earlier question he told us that he was unaware of any voluntary body or health board not having sufficient finance to carry on their responsibilities in regard to the disabled. Would the Minister not accept that both health boards and voluntary bodies are totally under-financed and are unable to provide the services they wish? Will the Minister furthermore accept that there are a number of buildings, some built as far back as 1981, not yet in operation because the health boards do not have enough staff for them? Will the Minister also accept that there is a total lack of accommodation for numerous adult mentally handicapped, that there are mentally handicapped people aged 18 being sent home from residential care centres to parents who are unable to look after them because there is no accommodation available for them?
No. If I may blow the trumpet of the Department a little on this question, I have deliberately transferred resources out of the acute hospitals area into that of the mentally handicapped. For example, in recent months I have made an additional £200,000 of annual revenue on an ongoing basis available to the Brothers of St. John of God. These brothers, particularly in relation to St. Mary's in Drumcar, urgently need additional resources and those resources have been made available. The same applies in relation to Galway. Again in recent months I have authorised additional resources to facilitate the opening of a further house for severely mentally handicapped children in the Pope John Paul II Centre in Ballymahon. In addition, Cheeverstown this year will have 130 residential places and 154 day care places which did not exist last year or the year before. Therefore, there has been a lot of extra money given. The Deputy will be aware that, in relation to the Brothers of Charity as well — and I have had discussions with both the Brothers of St. John of God and the Brothers of Charity — I made a very considerable amount of money available for 1985 and they are now reviewing how they propose spending that money.
Will the Minister accept that he gave incorrect information when he told us, in reply to an earlier question, that there were sufficient funds available for the needs of the handicapped when the Minister himself is aware of a number of buildings that cannot be staffed because——
The Deputy cannot go back on an earlier question.
It is relevant to this one. Indeed as you and I know, in our constituency, there has been a building lying in Cootehill since 1981 that has not been opened because money has not been allocated for staff. Furthermore, is the Minister aware and concerned at the implications of the very large reduction in the allocation available from the European Social Fund in the current year and its effects on the mentally handicapped in every health board area?
No, I would not agree at all. I would strongly suggest to the Deputy that he speak, in particular, to the religious orders who are doing outstanding work in this area. I met the Brothers of Saint John of God and I am giving them very substantial allocation for 1985 to enable them to open new units. The same applies to the Brothers of Charity. We made a substantial sum of money available to them only a fortnight ago on an ongoing revenue basis. Cheeverstown in Templeogue is also being renovated and last year, for example, I made almost £1 million available to them which they did not spend. In relation to the capital side, towards the end of last year I made £700,000 available for community based facilities and this year I am spending another £1.2 million on maintenance work in mentally handicapped areas.
The Minister did not answer the second part of my question.
The House does not seem to be anxious to make progress at Question Time and, in those circumstances, I will not allow Question Time to take over time allotted to debate.
I wish to raise on the Adjournment the serious situation obtaining in the Aran Islands at present whereby there is no medical practitioner on Inishmore while the permanently appointed doctor is indisposed.
I will communicate with the Deputy.