Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. That will be for next week.

The next item is C, which is correspondence from private individuals. Item 1343 is for myself. It has been dated 5 July 2022. It is a request that we make inquiries with the HSE regarding the expenditure on Erkina House, Rathdowney. This follows on from the consideration of an issue raised by Deputy Hourigan last week and our agreement to hold an engagement with the HSE in relation to mental health and expenditure in the community health organisations, CHOs, 4 and 8. This information will help inform that meeting. Is it agreed to request that?

The background to this is that the HSE had decided to close the facility. Very few people seemed to know anything about it, including the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. The Minister of State confirmed on the floor of the House that she was consulted about it and that it required her say-so before it could be closed. There have been significant improvements made to that development. There are 12 very vulnerable people who are living there. It is a great facility in the town of Rathdowny, in south County Laois. The HSE said that they have four such units in Laois-Offaly. If one is going to put two in Laois and two in Offaly, this facility is in the centre of the south of the county and is therefore ideally located. It is on a fabulous site with fantastic gardens. An examination of the site is being undertaken at the moment by the HSE. A relevant point is that we want to try to get a figure for the spend on that building in recent times in order to see how it works. I know that a huge re-roofing was job done in the past year on the building. The building would seem to me to be in good shape. It is a similar situation in some ways to the Owenacurra Centre. This building is certainly a substantial structure and is in good condition. It is important from the committee's point of view that we find out what has been spent to date on it. Is that agreed?