I propose to share time with Deputy Reilly.
Adjournment Debate.
Services for People with Disabilities.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this extremely important issue on behalf of the residents of the St. Joseph's Association intellectual disability service at St. Ita's Hospital in Portrane, County Dublin, and their families. It is a scandalous situation that Knockamann, the new residential development at the hospital comprising ten residential bungalows and a day centre, is still not open even though it was completed 14 months ago and handed over to the HSE eight months ago. It is very disappointing and demoralising that the 60 patients due to move there must instead remain in St. Ita's, a Victorian hospital in a poor state of disrepair which the Inspector of Mental Health Services has indicated repeatedly is in urgent need of refurbishment.
The transfer of 60 residents to Knockamann was to allow for the refurbishment of the existing service for the remaining patients and to close unsuitable areas of the hospital. That is on hold because of the farcical situation in which we now find ourselves. The Government's public service embargo is having a tangible effect on the service. Of the 40 new staff who were to be recruited, only 27 have thus far been appointed. St. Joseph's Association was never informed that this would be an obstacle to progress but instead was consistently reassured that the move would take place on schedule.
This delay is an injustice to the inpatients in St. Ita's Hospital who can only look at the new facility while they remain trapped in the same situation in which they have been for 11 years, waiting to be moved. It would take a relatively small sum of money, less than €1 million, to resolve the situation. The overall budget for the health service is €11 billion, while €4 billion has been put into the zombie Anglo Irish Bank and with another €4 billion to €6 billion of taxpayers' money to follow. I ask the Minister of State to give the matter careful consideration. People's lives are at stake and they and their families have been waiting long enough for what they were promised. The Minister of State must take action to correct this difficult situation.
I thank my colleague, Deputy Terence Flanagan, for sharing time. For inpatients with intellectual disabilities, St. Ita's is their home. Intellectual disability is disability for life. Yet these people are asked to live in surroundings that have been described by the Inspector for Mental Health Services in stark terms, with paint peeling off walls, dirt in corners and patients wandering aimlessly in the Victorian, Dickensian conditions. Every society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members.
There was cause for great hope — if not quite celebration — when Knockamann was built, a gleaming new unit on the grounds of St. Ita's Hospital, within view of the clients it is supposed to serve. They find it difficult to understand why it lies idle, guarded by a security man, instead of used for the purpose for which it was built. If the unit were functional, 60 patients could be moved from their current inadequate accommodations to modern facilities that would afford them much greater dignity. The additional staff would be able to provide a proper day service, more occupational therapy and so on, and a greater sense of normality. Instead these people have been left in the conditions I have described.
I understand it cost €14 million to build the facility that has been left idle. That is a penny wise and pound foolish approach. Even after the 60 patients are moved to Knockamann, some 100 others with intellectual disabilities will remain in the main block of St. Ita's Hospital. There must be an effort to alleviate the stifling conditions in which these people live. They are not there because they are ill; this is their home. I conclude by complimenting the staff who do such excellent work. Equally, however, I wish to refer to the stupidity of this public embargo, which has resulted in such a penny wise and pound foolish approach. Furthermore, it has resulted in the loss abroad of well-trained nurses, on whom much money has been spent for training. When this recruitment ban madness ends, we will find ourselves short of nurses.
I will be taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children. I thank Deputies Terence Flanagan and Reilly for raising this matter and am pleased to take this opportunity to outline the position in respect of St. Joseph's Intellectual Disability Services, which are located on the campus of St. Ita's Hospital, Portrane, County Dublin.
As the Deputies are aware, the construction and equipping of a new 60-bed residential development, comprising ten bungalows and a day resource centre for clients of St. Joseph's Intellectual Disabilities Services, is complete. This development, Knockamann, was handed over to the HSE in July 2009. It forms a crucial part in progressing national policy in effecting the transfer of clients with intellectual disabilities who currently are in psychiatric hospitals to more appropriate accommodation. It is the intention of the HSE to commission the entire development, that is, the residential bungalows and the day resource centre, as soon as possible. However, additional staff of various grades would be required to do so. This must be achieved in line with the HSE's national service plan for 2010 and with the various Government directives on recruitment and promotion within the public service.
In order to implement savings measures on public service numbers, the Government decided that with effect from 27 March 2009 to the end of 2010, no post in the public sector, however arising, may be filled by recruitment, promotion or payment of an allowance for the performance of duties at a higher grade. The decision applies to all grades of permanent and temporary staff, including nursing, notwithstanding a number of specific exemptions. The Government decision was modulated to ensure that key services are maintained in so far as possible in health services, particularly in respect of children at risk, older people and persons with a disability. A business case was submitted by the HSE to the Department of Health and Children in November 2009 on the staffing of the Knockamann development. As nursing staff are not a derogated grade under the current moratorium on recruitment and the public services, specific sanction is required to fill the posts needed to open the development. Having considered the business case, the Department of Health and Children requested some supplementary information, particularly on the skill mix of the posts that were required. It is anticipated that this will be forwarded to the Department shortly.
Any resolution of this matter must be achieved in the context of vacancies arising elsewhere in the health services and within the overall context of the employment control framework of the HSE. I wish to assure the Deputies that the Department is working closely with the HSE to endeavour to resolve the matter within the resources available at this time.
That is a disgraceful response. Less than €1 million is required.