asked the Minister for Health if he will make a report on the progress made towards the full utilisation of all the facilities in Cheeverstown House, Templeogue, Dublin 6 over the past year since the special interim board was established by him to oversee the management of (Cheeverstown) House during 1989.
Written Answers. - Cheeverstown House (Dublin).
205.
I regret that my experience with Cheeverstown in the past year has been a personal disappointment. The Cheeverstown complex was built at a cost of £8 million to play a central role in meeting an acute need for up to date provision for handicapped children and adults in the Dublin region, an area which is generally accepted to have special problems at the present time. The revenue funding of this centre is the responsibility of the Eastern Health Board, which have the statutory obligation of ensuring that there is an adequate and properly managed service for the people of their area and for seeing to it that these services are dispensed in the most effective and efficient manner.
The health board have an obligation to be satisfied about the manner of operation of the agencies they fund and their contribution towards meeting the priority needs of the people on their waiting lists for residential and day places. The health board expressed themselves as dissatisfied in this regard with Cheeverstown.
I intervened in the disagreement between the board of Cheeverstown and the health board in an attempt to reach an accommodation between the two parties which would allow for due progress with the development of the badly needed facilities. I emphasised from the outset that I was not coming down in favour of the case made by either side.
My sole concern was to ensure that the resources allocated to Cheeverstown should be made available to those handicapped people, and their hard pressed families, who needed them.
After a series of meetings and negotiations with all the parties involved, I eventually devised a formula aimed at the establishment of an interim board for Cheeverstown representative of the existing Cheeverstown board, the Eastern Health Board, the voluntary sector and parents' representatives under the chairmanship of former Garda Commissioner, Eamonn Doherty. The constitution of this interim committee was such as to ensure that no one party had a predominating voice. The prospect in view was that by working together in pursuance of a common aim of service to the handicapped and the full utilisation of Cheeverstown, a spirit of understanding and trust would develop which would enable the old Cheeverstown board to resume control after a year or two in an atmosphere which ensured good relations with the health board.
Unfortunately, my formula was not implemented. The old Cheeverstown board retained the running of the affairs of the centre and have refused to accept my further suggestion for an impartial board which would have been representative of the main voluntary organisations in Dublin, together with representatives from Cheeverstown and the health board.
I am not alone in my dissatisfaction with this state of affairs. Three members of the Cheeverstown board have already resigned in protest at the recalcitrance of their chairman and other members, and the representatives of the parents who are so anxious to see places opened for their children have also voiced their discontent with the attitude of the Cheeverstown board.
In short, given the identified need for places in residential accommodation I cannot any longer tolerate a situation in which there are 60 such places unused in Cheeverstown. I have taken steps to deal with the situation.