Mr. Michael Fitzgerald:

There is a deeper level of complexity than that outlined. The issue is that the two services are very different in terms of their components and people's needs in a broad sense.

To be honest, resolving it in the way outlined by the Deputy would not be possible.

However, I do take his point. For the likes of the Owenacurra Centre and other centres - I speak from a Cork-Kerry perspective - significant investment is required and, in fairness, it has been an issue for some time. Has sufficient funding not been available to us to refurbish buildings over the years? Yes, absolutely. Were there occasions in which we tried to refurbish buildings that were not fit for purpose in the long term? Yes, that is also true. Would we rather be in a different place with a better environmental structure in respect of our services? Absolutely, but we are not there. That is going back many decades. We must remember and put it into the context that some centres, like the Owenacurra Centre, were built as the next move on from what were the psychiatric hospitals of old. They moved wards out from those hospitals according to what the State was able to afford or what was seen as the appropriate thing then.

I have to keep coming back to this point. For the likes of myself and my colleagues here, we have to keep our eye on the current and future model of service going forward. I believe there is a bright and appropriate future for services in Midleton and the greater east Cork area, as well as across Cork. However, we will have to stay steady about it because if we keep saying that we will go back to a residential model of service, that is what will happen but I do not think that is an appropriate thing. Over the many decades I have been working in the services, that type of a residential institutional model was detrimental to people. It is much better for people to be maintained in their community, as the Deputy said, where they lived their lives, as best as they possibly could be with the supports we provide to them. I honestly believe that.