Dr. Sinead O'Brien:

As for being able to move people across the road, there is at present no facility there that would be able to meet their needs.

As for Deputy Buckley's second question, we are fully committed to enhancing the services in east Cork and all of Cork. What we need is to develop services that recognise that a variety of services and a variety of supports will be needed. Absolutely, we will need services for people who will need a higher level of support on a 24-hour basis. We also need, however, to embrace the fact that people can gain and regain skills and can have, therefore, a better quality of life and, as we have seen from the international evidence and evidence here, can move after having periods of rehabilitation. We have already appointed a consultant in rehabilitation psychiatry, and there are a number of other multidisciplinary team members in the process of being appointed. We are therefore already putting in place additional resources to assist people in their recovery journeys. That, coupled with a facility such as a residence, where people can have more independence and practise more of their everyday activities, the same way we do, will allow people to have a step-up, step-down model of support. That will be very positive. It will then be coupled with people moving on to the community, where they can have the east Cork home treatment team and a seven-day service. All of that together will be the hallmarks of a very modern service that will benefit everybody. I can therefore certainly tell the Deputy that we are absolutely committed to further developing the services in east Cork and Cork as a whole.