Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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We just had a discussion about putting people into the community which Mr. Kane and I both know mostly means normal houses. The idea that we would always have single-storey buildings is extraordinary. I have never come across it. The benefit to people who have mental health difficulties of a site that is in the centre of a town would be significant. I cannot understand the choice to make that single-storey calculation.

I want to move on to the Mental Health Commission report. The HSE has said in a lot of its correspondence with me through parliamentary questions and in other documents that the decision was made in June. The Mental Health Commission reviewed the building in February. When it came back in June, nothing had been addressed. I am wondering if the decision was really taken in June. Otherwise, surely there would have been action on some of the issue the commission raised. Where does this leave us with the Mental Health Commission? It is interesting that it declined to come to this session. The HSE has effectively weaponised its report. In no place did it say we should be closing Owenacurra. It said it was not fit for purpose but it said that about many other facilities. I would say there are very few facilities in Ireland that actually meet the requirements of mental health residential care. If we held every mental health facility in the country to the standards to which the HSE is holding Owenacurra, we would have a tsunami of closures.