Mr. Michael Fitzgerald:

I will answer that question in a second. To go back to the Chairman's question asking what are our plans to close other centres or whatever, I have no view in terms of the HSE having a masterplan to close lots of centres around there. I do not believe that is the case and certainly, speaking for the Cork-Kerry CHO, we do not have such plans in place.

We do have challenges, as I said earlier, to meet the requirements of regulators in a broad sense. I do not blame the regulators. Having regulation and a regulator to ensure that we provide services which are fit for purpose is very appropriate. We very much welcome that but it takes investment and adherence to Government policy. A very significant investment is required for us to put all of our centres in Cork right in the context of regulation and will take time. Such an investment across a range of centres where we have issues, which must be put right from the perspective of the environment, is going to be a costly set of plans and in the environment in which we find ourselves it will take a period to do so. We are in that space where that is happening. Thankfully, we have some investment already under way and planned in some of our centres. That is ongoing at the Carrig Mór and Mercy centres where funding is available for a very significant refurbishment of both. I do not think that it can all be achieved in a day and certainly it cannot all be achieved without significant resources. It is our intention to redevelop the two centres so that we have a modern service with supporting infrastructure.

Sometimes we do not take stock of the things that happen. Therefore, I wish to note that there has been a very significant development of primary care centres in Cork and Kerry. Mental health teams have been provided accommodation in an integrated way with primary care centres right across the system. A few years ago that would not have been the case as they would have been very much based in old psychiatric hospitals, etc. Now many of our teams across Cork and Kerry provide services in those centres and to people in their own homes. One might not see that service as it is not the same as seeing a centre with a name on its door. That is a hugely powerful level of service that is being provided to people right now and that is important to state.

The Chairman asked a question about the decision-making. While we do not have a specific note on the specific decision that was made, it was I who made it in consultation with the mental health team and in consultation with my colleagues in estates. I viewed the documentation that was available to me at that particular point in time and weighed up very strongly the requirement for a service provision for the people in residence at that particular point in time versus the challenges. That was provided through the view from my colleagues in estates and with the reports that were available to them as to whether we were to move forward with that or not, or were we actually to let people stay in what at the end of the day was a building that was not fit for purpose. I have to say that I made the decision that we should not keep people in a place that was not fit for purpose nor was it possible, in any kind of a financially viable way, to continue to do so.