James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The question is coming. Last week the Irish Mental Health Commission revealed that almost half of the €50 million allocated for the implementation of A Vision for Change, to which the Minister of State referred, had been spent in other areas. On "Prime Time" the Minister was not able to tell us how much of the €50 million had been spent on mental health. Can the Minister explain why moneys allocated for the implementation of A Vision for Change are not being used for this purpose, why there is no allocation of the €25 million for the implementation of A Vision for Change in the budget of 2008 and why mental health services are being stripped of their assets?

I wish to add a supplementary question on the psychiatric unit in Beaumont Hospital which was promised over 25 years ago. A unit was built, but it was used because there was overcrowding in the hospital and now there is equipment stored in it. A further application was made a couple of years ago for a psychiatric unit and now the co-located hospital, although not built entirely on it, impinges on that site and makes it unusable.

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