Tom Moffatt
Question:19 Dr. Moffatt asked the Minister for Health the way in which he proposes to use the extra budgetary £10 million for the mentally handicapped. [4344/97].
Other Questions. - Mental Handicap Services.
The £10 million of additional funding announced in the budget will be used to provide new services in 1997, including 160 new residential/respite places; 350 new day care places; the introduction of a home support grant to offer immediate assistance to the carers of those on the waiting list for a residential place, details of which will be announced shortly; the continuation of the ongoing programme to transfer persons with a mental handicap from inappropriate care settings and the further enhancement of services to persons with autism in line with the recommendations outlined in the Department's policy document on these services.
Details of the precise services to be put in place in each health board region will be agreed by the regional mental handicap co-ordinating committees in line with the priority needs which have been identified for each region.
The priority this year is to provide as many day and residential places as possible and to increase the support for those families caring for a son or daughter with a mental handicap at home. I am confident the investment this year in the expansion of services will benefit the majority of families caring for a family member who has been assessed as in need of a day or residential place.
Does the Minister agree that £10 million is a very small amount in these times of economic boom? Mental handicap has been a problem for many years and I have been maintaining for the past two years that we are not making any indent on this problem. We have good times at present. However, Deputy O'Han-lon was able to give £8 million in restrictive times.
Over 1,500 people wait for residential places and there are still over 1,000 people in psychiatric hospitals who should not be there. A database is in place, yet we are not making progress. We are planning on an ad hoc basis and are not moving forward on this problem.
I profoundly disagree with the Deputy. The additional money for this year amounted to £12 million — not £10 million — of which £2 million was put aside and allocated to meet identified needs in existing services. It is a significant step forward to have 160 extra residential/respite places and 350 new day care places. The Deputy will recall in regard to people in inappropriate settings that last year he asked me about St. Ita's in Portrane. Two million pounds was provided last year for premises so that people in inappropriate settings could be moved to more appropriate settings. In some settings, such as Madonna House, places are ready for people to take up residence. We have an ongoing programme and substantial progress has been made.
I draw the Deputy's attention to the home support grant because this recognises that there are people who require residential places who will not be facilitated this year but a grant will be made available to their families so that further supports can be provided in the home. This is in addition to the home support scheme introduced in 1992 which has been very successful. A great deal has been achieved and £12 million in revenue this year is a substantial amount of money in the context of meeting the needs of this group of people.
The experience on the ground is that health boards and other bodies will not receive the £12 million in 1997 and that much of this money will not be coming on stream until September. Will this money be spent this year? What about the five year programme for the development of the mental handicap service? It was supposed to be initiated last year but there is no word on that at present.
These are boom times according to the Government and people with a mental handicap, their parents and carers expected to receive more. This is a section of society that needs urgent attention. Less than 10 per cent of total health funding goes to this area and we are not dealing with it. How much of that money will be allocated to health boards this year?
Allocations in respect of the £2 million designated to meet identified needs in existing services have been notified. As I said in my reply, the regional co-ordinating committees will come back to the Department with their recommendations as to how the extra funding should be used. I hope to be in a position shortly to notify health boards of their allocations. Consequent to that, the recommendations from the various groups will come back. Time will not be lost unnecessarily and it is my firm commitment, and that of the Government, that the money allocated will achieve the optimum in terms of additional services for this client group.
Before the election.