Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Tá súil agam go mbeidh freagra sásúil aige don rún atá mé ag chuir ós comhair an Tí anocht.
The John Paul Centre in Galway city provides residential accommodation for 60 residents, 50 on site and two houses in the community accommodating five each. There is also a crisis and relief unit for under sixes which provides for up to eight clients at any one time but it is only open 26 weekends in the year and is unable to meet all the requests for relief.
The budget for the day to day running of the services is paid from the Department of Health after discussion with the Brother Provincial. However, money for any new developments within the services is allocated to the regional co-ordinating committee which consists of representatives of the Western Health Board, the Galway County Association, Western Care Association and the Brothers of Charity services.
These people want to use this money to provide additional services such as the opening of hostels, etc. Unfortunately, this has not happened despite the fact that the Western Regional Mental Handicap Co-ordinating Committee has been told it may decide how the money will be spent for the provision of additional services. It was told that the 1992 allocation would be used to provide additional places in Swinford, County Mayo, for mentally handicapped people from the west who were availing of the Dublin service. This was done to create more vacancies in Dublin and not to help the mentally handicapped people living in the west.
The allocation of £150,000 received this year was not used for new developments, but to help the Western Care Association and the Galway Mental Handicap Association to offset their financial deficit, which resulted from inadequate funding by the Western Health Board. In spite of the Government's recent statement that it is providing additional services for mentally handicapped people through the Western Regional Mental Handicap Co-ordinating Committee, this has not happened.
The parents and friends of the Pope John Paul Centre have provided a purpose built house which can accommodate five mentally handicapped people. It has been at the top of the priority list for funding for the last two years. However, as the Government is deciding how the money should be spent, there is little likelihood it will be opened if the money allocated to the Western Regional Mental Handicap Co-ordinating Committee is earmarked before they receive it.
There are five mentally handicapped people attending the Pope John Paul Centre on a daily basis and their families are in need of residential accommodation. Every effort is made to provide them with short-term care, but the centre is not able to meet their needs. These families do not know what will happen if there is a crisis in the near future. Some 21 other people attend the centre on a daily basis and their families are provided with limited short term care. Only three places are available at the Pope John Paul Centre to provide short term care at present. When residents go home their beds are used for those who require short-term care and this is unsatisfactory. Fewer people are going home for short periods because their parents are getting old and the children are getting stronger. In the near future the centre will be able to provide less relief for those most in need.
We need an assurance from the Government that the money given to the Western Regional Mental Handicap Co-ordinating Committee will be used as the committee decides in the light of the various proposals and not earmarked by the Government before the committee receives it. This money must be used to provide additional services, not to bail out services underfunded by the Government.
Parents associated with the Burren View Centre have campaigned over the past three years for the establishment of a service for children in the Brothers of Charity. Three years ago the Brothers of Charity forwarded a proposal to the Department of Health for the establishment of a community based service for children with severe mental handicaps in the six to 13 year old age group. However, no additional funding has been provided by the Department of Health for this service. These children are part of a group of severely physically and mentally handicapped children in the services of the Brothers of Charity.
To date, the children have received an excellent service at the Burren View Centre based on the principles of conductive education pioneered at the Peto Institute in Budapest, Hungary. A number of children do not have a day service because they have not been offered places at the Pope John Paul Centre in Ballybane, County Galway.
In an attempt to respond to the children's needs, the Brothers of Charity have provided a service for some of the children through redeployment of existing resources. The Brothers of Charity are resubmitting the proposal I mentioned to the Department of Health for funding in 1994. It is imperative that the Department of Health provides the necessary funds to consolidate and develop the service commenced by the Brothers of Charity so that provision can be made as soon as possible for the children without a service. It is hard for parents to watch their children regress physically and intellectually as they wait for the Department of Health to honour the commitments made in the Department's report. Needs and Abilities: A Policy for the Intellectually Disabled, in 1990.
It was sad to see those who work for mentally handicapped groups marching outside Leinster House in the rain last week to highlight the plight of the associations around the country and the lack of funds available to them. Adequate funding must be provided to enable people such as those involved in the Burren View Centre and the Pope John Paul Centre in Ballybane, County Galway to develop proper services to meet the growing needs of the handicapped. I hope the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy O'Dea, whom I thanked for coming here this evening, will respond positively to this important matter.
