Vol. 501 No. 3
246 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Health and Children the action, if any, taken and the funding provided by him since June 1997 for the mentally handicapped, particularly in relation to residential, respite and new day places and specialist and other support services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6129/99]
Since my appointment as Minister for Health and Children, and despite the many competing demands which are made on the resources available to my Department, I have consistently identified as one of my priorities the provision of the additional residential, respite and day services outlined in the document, "Services to Persons with a Mental Handicap – An Assessment of Need 1997-2001".
Since June 1997 I have allocated an additional £53 million, with a full year cost of £59 million in 2000, towards the cost of meeting the needs identified in the assessment of need. In the three year period 1995 to 1997, the previous Government allocated a total of £36.22 million in capital and revenue funding, or on average just over £12 million per year to these services. This compares with an average of over £25 million per year allocated by me to these services to date.
I have also put in place a £30 million national capital programme to run over four years in tandem with the assessment of need to provide the infrastructure necessary to support the services. This is the first time that such a programme has been provided and it allows for a much more co-ordinated approach to be taken in the planning of services as opposed to the haphazard approach taken in the past.
