Vol. 481 No. 3
39 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to the staffing and accommodation crisis at the St. John of God school for the mentally handicapped in Celbridge, County Kildare; if he will make provision for this school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15908/97]
Officials of my Department recently had discussions with representatives from the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God concerning services provided in St. Raphael's, Celbridge with a view to identifying the priority needs within that service. The question of the provision of additional funding to begin to meet the needs identified by this process will be considered in the light of the resources which may be made available to my Department in 1998.
Ten million pounds additional funding was made available to the mental handicap agencies this year for the development of day and residential services to persons with a mental handicap, of which £2.475 million was allocated to mental handicap agencies in the Eastern Health Board region, including the St. John of God services. I am aware that since this allocation was provided there have been a number of emergency admissions to the services which have placed an additional financial burden on them. In order to minimise the impact of these emergency admissions on existing services, I provided an additional grant of £350,000 to assist the Eastern Health Board and the relevant mental handicap agencies with the provision of additional placements, including the St. John of God services.
The Government is committed to the ongoing development of services to persons with a mental handicap as outlined in the Government's An Action Programme for the Millennium. As I have already explained, I am not yet in a position to comment on the level of funding which may be available for any particular services in 1998.
