Pádraic McCormack
Ceist:137 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Health the amount of additional funding allocated to each health board for the development of mental handicap services.
Written Answers. - Mental Handicap Services Funding.
An additional £8.5 million has been made available in 1993 for the development of services for people with a mental handicap. The total allocation for services for people with a mental handicap this year is approximately £209 million.
Of the additional £8.5 million I have made available new resources of £2 million to strengthen the funding base of the direct funded mental handicap agencies and to meet some essential service needs. As many as these agencies provide services in more than one health board area it is not possible to say at this stage how much of the additional money is going to each area.
Four million pounds has been allocated to the health board regions as follows:
|
Health Board Regions |
£000 |
|
Eastern |
1.750 |
|
Midland |
0.177 |
|
Mid-Western |
0.458 |
|
North-Eastern |
0.552 |
|
North-Western |
0.100 |
|
South-Eastern |
0.586 |
|
Southern |
0.219* |
|
Western |
0.158 |
*Provision has been made in other regions for persons who will be transferred from the Southern Health Board area this year thereby releasing places within the Southern Health Board for persons currently on the waiting list there.
The precise services to be provided in each region will be agreed by the local mental handicap co-ordinating committees within the guidelines issued by my Department and are subject to approval by me.
Provision has also been made for the capital investment necessary to support the initiatives which will be put in place this year. The allocation of the £2.5 million capital funding made available in the budget will be directly related to the service developments agreed by the regional mental handicap co-ordinating committees and approved by my Department. Accordingly, it is not possible to say now how much will be allocated to each area.
These allocations were determined on the basis of the waiting lists for services and on the current level of service provision in each area.