The House will now hear two minute statements on matters appropriate to the Minister for the Environment and to the Minister for Health. I propose to call the Deputies selected in the following order: Deputy Deenihan, Deputy Creed, Deputy Finucane, Deputy Fennell and Deputy Deasy. Each Deputy is entitled to two minutes in respect of each matter and each statement will be followed immediately by a two minute reply from the appropriate Minister or Minister of State.
Adjournment Debate. - Environment and Health Matters.
Stage 3 of the Tralee group water scheme will serve the Dromtacker, Colliswood, Pallas, Killflynn, Abbeydorney, Tullig, Laccamore and Leith areas of north Kerry. Up to 600 householders will benefit. At present 250 householders are without mains water and 350 households in the Abbeydorney-Killflynn area have a very poor water supply. In the areas that are not served by a mains water supply at present, the residents have had to make their own arrangements, either by boring their own wells or by building water troughs. I might add that the water in the wells is of very poor quality because of its iron content. Indeed, some households in this area have no water supply whatsoever and they are forced to draw water by various methods. A large number of farmers will benefit from this scheme. In times of drought, these farmers are greatly inconvenienced and their production is affected. Many farmers are facing financial ruin at present because of falling incomes. A good water supply is essential for any farming enterprise.
They need spring water.
Where does the spring come from?
A large number of households in the area are involved in agri-tourism and make their living from it. Killflynn and Abbeydorney are supplied from the Cappagh reservoir but this is operating 100 per cent over its design capacity——
The Deputy has exhausted this time.
The Minister has informed the trustees that a substantial grant of £340,000 will be allocated, but when will they be allowed to proceed with the works?
I am very happy to confirm to Deputy Deenihan that the financial arrangements for the scheme are in place. Last month the Department approved a grant of £500,000 in respect of Phase 3 of this scheme — the farmers' bridge scheme — and taken together with the £900,000 in grants that have already been put in place for Phase 1 and 2 it means that a total of £1.4 million in grants has been allocated to this scheme. This is a major scheme, of course, and provides a major part of the infill for the Kerry central regional water supply scheme and will deal with 1,000 households and farms in total. It is costly to construct and traverses the heartland of the regional scheme. It means upsizing of pipes, which has been agreed with Kerry County Council.
Phases 1 and 2 are almost complete, and this serves 600 houses: Phase 3 which is about to commence will deal with 160 houses and farms. It will extend the water supply to Cappagh, Abbeydorney and Killflynn and will eliminate the water quality problems to which the Deputy referred.
The designs for Phases 4 and 5 are being examined at present. It is a very large scheme and an unusually large amount of money is being given to it. It has high priority and is drawing down an enormous amount of the available moneys I have under that heading for the whole of the country. A lot of it is going to County Kerry.
As opposed to the roads money.
It has been indicated that the money is available and I understand the Deputy will probably find, if he checks, that there were officers down dealing with the matter on the ground today.
When can they commence work?
Immediately.
I do not think any member could do justice to the work carried out by the Irish Guide Dogs Association in two minutes; however, I shall try. The Irish Guide Dogs Association has improved the quality of life for many blind people throughout the country by virtue of the service they provide for the mobility and aftercare of blind persons. They have provided this service since their foundation without any Exchequer funding and I wish to raise this matter with the Minister tonight. I plead with the Minister to recognise the work of this organisation in a meaningful way by paying an annual Exchequer grant to defray their running costs.
The Irish Guide Dogs Association was founded in 1976 by Mary Dunlop and Jim Dennehy and has gone from strength to strength. Their aims are to supply guide dogs, to operate a breeding scheme for suitable dogs, to instruct the blind and visually impaired to use guide dogs and to give the blind and visually impaired training in long cane and orientation skills. They opened a guide dog training centre in the Model Farm Road in Cork in 1981 and recently have expanded it. To date they have received but a token grant from the national lottery for the works they have carried out. It is unfair to expect an organisation like this to survive on arbitrary grants such as funds from the national lottery, which is subject to the vagaries of the political system. An organisation that provides such an excellent service deserves more.
The cost of providing one guide dog is approximately £5,000 and the total operating cost of the association in one year is approximately £180,000. They provide approximately 24 trained dogs to blind persons in any given year but they could provide far more if they had the financial resources to do so. I appeal to the Minister to familiarise himself with the excellent work they are doing and to initiate a consultation process with the Irish Guide Dogs Association to put them on a firm financial footing by allocating annual Exchequer funding to defray their running costs, thus enabling them to improve the quality of life for blind people in this country.
I can readily endorse the respect in which the Irish Guide Dogs Association are held. Long before I came into this House I had personal knowledge of and involvement with this reputable body and commend them on their tremendous work.
The Department of Health have received no application in recent years for additional funding for the Irish Guide Dogs Association. In 1987 the Minister for Health received an application for a grant towards the association's trainers salaries and expenses. However, due to the limited resources available and the fact that the association at that time had considerable reserves of funds, the Minister was unable to accede to their request. We are very conscious of the valuable service provided by the association to blind people and if a further application for additional funding is received, it will be considered very carefully.
St. Ita's is a geriatric hospital situated in Newcastle West. As the Minister is aware, there has been a great increase in the number of older people in the past number of years; in fact, demographic trends show that we will have an expanding older population and obviously this will put pressure on the geriatric hospitals.
They have a case assessment unit in St. Ita's Hospital and, let me say, that I compliment them because they act independently. Recently I heard a Fianna Fáil politician say that the politicians should be involved in this function but I disagree with him because I am aware of the inherent dangers in that. There is a waiting list for St. Ita's Hospital. Despite the increasing number of older people who are making demands on the hospital, the number of places has been reduced over the past few years. Will the Minister increase the number of places in the hospital to cater for the increasing demand?
We have been informed by the Mid-Western Health Board that St. Ita's geriatric hospital in Newcastle West, County Limerick, is currently providing an extremely effective service. The hospital has a complement of 170 beds catering for a population of between 10,000 and 11,000 elderly people aged 65 years and over. There are six rehabilitation beds in the hospital. A day hospital introducing a special activity centre was opened within the past two years and has proved very successful. As a result of these facilities becoming available the hospital's admission rate has trebled. Transport is provided for the patients using the day hospital.
The Programme for Economic and Social Progress makes provision for an increase in the numbers of extended care beds available for the elderly. Each health board has been asked to prepare a plan in this connection.
The Mid-Western Health Board as part of their plan to implement commitments under the PESP intend to increase the number of rehabilitation beds in St. Ita's hospital to 15. This will result in a reduction in some long stay beds. At present there are 20 welfare beds in St. Ita's but it is hoped that these will be phased out as alternative places become available in sheltered housing schemes and through boarding out arrangements.
St. Ita's hospital employs one part-time medical officer who supervises the day hospital. A consultant geriatrician also holds one session per week in the hospital. I trust that this information confirms the importance of and the respect there is for St. Ita's hospital and its contribution to our health service.
I thank you for allowing me to raise this matter. As so often is the case with my contributions on Adjournment debates this has to do with the problems of the mentally handicapped.
I raised this matter this evening because I have written to the Department of Health and to the Minister outlining specific difficult situation which have come to my attention and to which, so far, I have not had a reply and parliamentary questions I have tabled have been unsatisfactorily and inadequately answered.
In relation to the cutbacks in the availability of nappies and plastic pants for the adult mentally handicapped who are living at home, serious difficulties are being created for the elderly parents of these adult mentally handicapped by the fact that these nappies are being rationed out to them. These people have done a lifetime's work looking after their severely mentally handicapped children — they are not children but young adults or middle aged adults. They have saved the State a great deal of money and in most cases they are getting no carer's allowance. They are being disadvantaged because certain health boards and health centres are withholding these nappies. There is the ridiculous situation that people who need nine or ten nappies a day are being issued with four or five. If they need nine or ten, they need nine or ten and there is no point giving them half that number.
There are specific difficulties in the Crumlin health centre. I outlined the details in a letter to the Department of Health in February and still have not got a reply. I appeal to the Minister to look into this problem because these people are paying up to £10 a day to buy these nappies to which they are entitled. Let the Minister look into the problem and review it but, for goodness sake, intervene and resolve the problem where there are serious difficulties.
Each health board attempts to treat the needs of all patients as sympathetically as possible. Each health board constantly monitor the provision of special clothing and garments for mentally handicapped people. However, if Deputy Fennell is aware of individual cases of difficulty or if the case to which she is referring has already been represented to the Department, the Minister for Health is prepared to immediately refer the details again to the relevant health board for urgent investigation and reply to the Deputy. I can assure the Deputy that if she contacts the Minister's office in the morning this will be done.
I wish to raise the matter of an industrial dispute which has affected the three hospitals in Waterford city for the last three weeks — St. Patrick's, St. Otteran's and Waterford Regional Hospital. The domestic staff have been on strike and this has seriously disrupted the catering and cleaning services in the hospitals.
I am aware that for the past two days the union concerned, the ATGWU, have been meeting with officials of the health board at the Labour Court in an effort to resolve this dispute, but if the dispute is not resolved quickly I am afraid there will be an escalation which will affect all hospitals in the south-eastern region and may actually spread to other categories employed in those hospitals.
The standard of hygiene must suffer as a result of this strike. There are health implications as well as other undesirable aspects to such an undesirable dispute. I would appreciate it if the Minister for Health and the Minister for Labour would use their good offices to see that the dispute is brought to a speedy conclusion for the betterment of the staff and the patients to whom there must be an element of danger when such a dispute drags on.
Non-nursing staff who are members of the ATGWU in St. Otteran's psychiatric hospital commenced strike action, without prior notification to the South-Eastern Health Board, on Friday 19 April 1991. The initial dispute related to rostering arrangements.
The strike was escalated by the union to include non-nursing staff at Waterford Regional Hospital, Ardkeen, St. Patrick's geriatric hospital, Waterford, St. Joseph's geriatric hospital Dungarvan, the District Hospital and Dunabbey welfare home, Dungarvan.
After 30 hours of conciliation under the auspices of an officer of the Labour Relations Commission the South-Eastern Health Board requested the Labour Court to intervene. The Labour Court heard both sides of the case on 26 April 1991 and 6 May 1991 and issued their recommendation earlier today, which, among other things, have requested an immediate return to work. It is understood that the ATGWU workers are being balloted later today on the recommendation. The South-Eastern Health Board have indicated that they are prepared to accept the recommendation of the court. We are all hoping, as I am sure Deputy Deasy and his colleagues from Waterford are, that the recommendation of the Labour Court will be accepted immediately and that the staff will return to work to ensure that a proper level of services is delivered to the patients in those institutions.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.15 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 8 May 1991.