Thank you for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I also thank the Minister, Deputy Howlin, for coming in to reply in person.
Alcoholism and alcohol-related problems make a very heavy demand on our psychiatric services. Three years ago alcohol abuse accounted for 24 per cent of all admissions to health board psychiatric hospitals. In total there were 6,608 admissions to public psychiatric hospitals in 1989 and of these 2,234 were first admissions.
At the beginning of this month the Minister hosted a conference under the auspices of the Eastern Health Board and delivered an excellent address. The conference was attended by experts in this field from Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe, certain differences of opinion were evident and this is the reason I raise this matter.
In the report "Planning for the Future" it was stated that the trend in Ireland was towards greater specialisation in the management of alcohol-related problems, that this approach often involved costly in-patient care which tended to separate the treatment and management of alcohol-related problems from the community, medical and social services. The report questioned the wisdom of this approach on the grounds that there was no evidence that intensive high cost in-patient treatment was in any way superior to simple, inexpensive community-based intervention, which is much more cost effective.
I ask the Minister to consider all the options available. Each should be considered and should not be exclusive of another. We should have a national policy on the treatment of alcoholism and alcohol abuse. In the Minister's own constituency of Wexford and in mine of Tipperary, Sister Eileen Fahy of Aiseiri is giving a tremendous service in a drug free environment to people from all walks of life. Her service has been recognised by an award of Tipperary Person of the Year and by a civic reception by the chairperson and members of Tipperary South Riding County Council. She has been recognised by all the State and semi-State agencies such as Telecom Éireann, An Post, the ESB, the Garda Síochána and the prison officers. All her ideas have been used for the benefit of these major employers. She has now commissioned an independent survey by an eminent professor from one of our leading universities. I am sure this report, when completed, will confirm that there is merit in her system and that it is indeed cost effective.
I hope the Minister will avail of an early opportunity to meet people like Sister Eileen Fahy and to talk with her and the other experts in the public service with a view to approaching this major problem in a rational and structured way; this problem has been the cause of many man hours lost to industry, broken homes, crime, rape, incest and many others. Much of this comes down to the abuse of alcohol and there is a responsibility on all of us to try to deal with this problem.