Deputy Shatter has been given permission to raise the matter of the urgent need for extra residential places for adult mentally handicapped in south Dublin and the necessity to bring into operation the current vacant residential units in Cheeverstown House.
Adjournment Debate. - Accommodation for South Dublin Mentally Handicapped.
I propose to give one minute of my time to Deputy Fennell, with the agreement of the House.
The Standing Order does not preclude such brotherly love, if the House agrees.
This is brotherly and sisterly love, although we should not be sexist about these things.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I feel extremely strongly on this issue. There is an urgent need — and has been for some considerable time — for additional residential places for the adult mentally handicapped. It is a need that this Government are deliberately— I emphasise "deliberately"— ignoring. In ignoring that need they are causing major problems for parents who can no longer cope with looking after adult mentally handicapped in their own homes. As a result, the strains which these parents — many of them elderly — are being put under as a result are causing a disintegration of family life and, where there are younger children in the family, are making it impossible for the families to have any sort of normal existence.
The Government's failure to recognise and meet the need in this area is a national scandal, it cannot be put in any other way. In the south Dublin area there are in the region of 300 people on the waiting list for admittance to Cheeverstown House for residential care as adult mentally handicapped. Families are living under continuous strain, unable to cope. Some families are in fear of their lives; for example, I know a family with an autistic adult aged 19 who resided at home during childhood and whose mental state is such that the father and mother feel their lives are at risk if the person remains living in their home. They can no longer cope.
This is not the first time I raised the issue in this House. On 29 November I raised it and the scandal of Cheeverstown House which has 60 residential units which remain unfilled. Those units could take 60 people off the waiting list of 300 and provide full-time residential care if the Government would allocate the resources to the Eastern Health Board to allow Cheeverstown House to have the current annual expenditure required for the additional staff necessary to provide care for 60 people. In this House on 29 November, the Minister for Health assured us that the problems which existed in the past with regard to disputes between Cheeverstown House, the Eastern Health Board and the Department of Health, had been resolved. I pressed him to indicate how many new places would be allocated during the early part of 1990 to people who required residential care. The Minister refused to do so and on that occasion he, by implication, made it clear that, in his view, additional places would be made available in 1991. When I pressed him further on the matter I was thrown out of this House by the Ceann Comhairle because I insisted on asking the Minister to put on the record how many new places would be occupied in Cheeverstown House. He refused to reply specifically; I expressed the suspicion that the Minister was misleading the House. It is now very clear that, on 29 November 1990, in addressing the issue of Cheeverstown House, the Minister for Health deliberately misled this House into believing that the residential units required by families for adult mentally handicapped would be made available.
Deputy Shatter knows that a Deputy may not make a charge that a Minister deliberately misled the House. Surely Deputy Shatter has the capacity to express himself in words which will not bring upon him the sanctions which I will have to impose if he does not change the manner in which he made the charge?
Sir, it is with great regret that I expressed myself in the way I did.
Does the Deputy propose withdrawing the charge that the Minister deliberately misled the House?
The circumstances in which the Minister —
Does the Deputy propose to withdraw the charge?
The Minister said that places would be provided. If the Chair will allow me to explain——
An Leas-Ceann Comhairle
Do you propose withdrawing the charge?
Will you allow me to explain——
Do you propose doing so? Your time is up.
The Minister for Health deliberately misled the House——
Please leave the House, Deputy. Your time is up, so your colleague cannot avail of your generosity in allocating time to her.
Three hundred families require residential care for their adult mentally handicapped. It is a disgrace that the Minister for Health sends a junior Minister into this House to deal with this issue. Having left the House last December he does not have the courage to come into this House on the Adjournment Debate to explain why this Government are ignoring the necessity to provide places for the adult mentally handicapped.
Deputy Shatter, leave the House. Deputy Shatter, you are wasting your sweetness, or your sourness. You are wasting your sourness. Your time is up. Leave the House.
The mentally handicapped are being discriminated against. Their families are discriminated against. It is a national disgrace that we are ignoring the needs of these people.
Deputy Shatter is a disgrace to this House. Please leave.
This Minister, three years ago, pledged action on this and the Minister will not come in and reply. It is a disgrace and it is regrettable, Sir, that it is necessary to raise a row of this nature to put the spotlight on an issue that needs to be tackled.
Deputy Shatter is a disgrace to the House. Deputy Shatter will be amenable to the rules of the House.
I will continue to raise this issue until the Minister provides the resources necessary.
The time is up. The Minister to reply.
Deputy Shatter never ceases to amaze me because every time he comes in here he tries to dramatise human situations.
We all share the Deputy's concern that the vacant accommodation at Cheeverstown has not been brought into operation to meet the needs of people with mental handicap and their families.
The new Cheeverstown House complex was developed in 1983 at a cost of £8.5 million from public funds. It was planned to accommodate a total of 130 people on a residential basis and 184 on a day basis. The centre currently caters for 60 residents and 134 adults and children attending day services.
It was clear from the substantial funding of this devopment, that the Minister for Health and his Department expected that a satisfactory service would be maintained by Cheeverstown in close co-operation with the other mental handicap agencies and the Eastern Health Board which is statutorily obliged to provide services in their area.
Cheeverstown was funded for revenue purposes directly by the Department in 1984 and 1985. In 1986, the Eastern Health Board was made responsible for funding the centre. The transfer of funding from the Department to the Eastern Health Board was designed to build up a closer relationship between the centre and the statutory authority. Unfortunately, this did not work and relationships between the two bodies deteriorated to such a level that the Eastern Health Board felt constrained to threaten to withdraw funding. After considerable direct negotiation with the Cheeverstown House Limited Board, the Minister for Health prevailed upon them to appoint a new interim management committee to manage the service. However, the Board of Cheeverstown House failed to honour the spirit of the agreement and refused to stand aside.
During 1990 representatives of the voluntary mental handicap movement launched an initiative with a view to resolving the difficulties between Cheeverstown House and the Eastern Health Board. This initiative was persisted with and finally in October 1990 a formula was agreed for a positive working relationship between Cheeverstown House and the Eastern Health Board. This agreement facilitated the full participation of Cheeverstown House in the provision of services to people with mental handicap and their families. It also opened the way for the commissioning of additional places in the centre. I regret to say that difficulties have arisen in the implementation of this agreement. Once again Cheeverstown, for reasons unknown, are reluctant to honour the spirit of the agreement.
Since coming into office the Minister for Health, Deputy O'Hanlon, has dealt patiently with this matter. He has allowed the various initiatives ample time to be implemented without interference from him or the Department. This initiative must also be allowed to run its course. I would, however, like to assure this House that should it fail and on receipt of that advice from the representatives of the Eastern Health Board and the other voluntary organisations working in mental handicap, the Minister will propose to Government a course of action to deal with the situation.
Both the Minister and I are very aware of the need which exists for additional mental handicap services. I would, however, like to point out that last year approximately £160 million was spent on the provision of services to people with mental handicap, of which about £44 million was spent on services in the eastern region. Over 12,000 people are in receipt of a day or residential service; some 4,500 of these places are located in the eastern region. This does not include services provided by the Department of Education.
In 1990, an additional £2 million was allocated to meet the immediate priority needs identified by the mental handicap co-ordinating committees operating in each region. This allocation enabled 149 new residential places, 442 new day places and 21 respite care places to be provided. It was also possible to approve 25 extra staff for other supports. Because of the particularly serious situation, which existed in the Dublin area, £1 million of the £2 million was allocated to provide an extra 78 residential places, up to 200 respite places per annum, 184 day places and an expanded family support service for 66 people.
This year a further £1 million is being allocated to build on last year's developments. Discussions are currently taking place with the Eastern Health Board on the additional places to be provided from this allocation. In addition under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress the Government are committed to the development of services for people with mental handicap to meet identified needs in the years 1991-97 in line with the recommendations of the Review Group on Mental Handicap Services whose report will be published shortly.
I must also point out that allocations to voluntary mental handicap agencies funded by the Department have been protected since 1986 in real terms in recognition of the vital service they provide. I feel, therefore, that this Government's record shows a commitment to mental handicap services, and an understanding that this area should be regarded as a high priority.
I only wish that the Members of this House right across the board would play a positive role in trying to resolve local difficulties in places like Cheeverstown so that we can ensure that the proper service is available to the people who require it.
That is precisely what we are doing and I think that is a shameful response to a very critical problem.