Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

Last year, the Minister of State allocated €4.5 million for the implementation of the 1995 report recommendations. This year, the same amount has been allocated and, therefore, no progress will be made on the implementation of these recommendations.

I refer to the issue of suicide. The Minister of State allocated €4.5 million to suicide prevention this year with 500 people dying by suicide last year, while the Government allocated €44.3 million totally inadequately for the prevention of road traffic deaths, of which there were 338 last year.

I attended a serious presentation recently by Professor Paul Mullen on his work in Victoria, New Zealand, in the forensic mental health area. He is absolutely totally opposed to locating Thornton Hall hospital beside a prison. He said it was one of the worst decisions the Government has made. The hospital is a therapeutic institution while the prison is a custodial institution. The hospital, where the treatment and cure of patients must be the objective, will be stigmatised by its location beside a custodial institution, designed for the containment of people. Due to its location, it is inevitable the regime and the culture of the hospital will become custodial rather than therapeutic. I ask the Minister to revisit that decision. Land is available at the present site of the Central Mental Hospital. A total of 43 acres are available, of which only 20 are required to build a new state-of-the-art hospital.

I have received various replies from the HSE to parliamentary questions. I asked what had happened to the €50 million allocation for mental health services and the HSE replied it was allocated towards the development of A Vision for Change. However, we know that was not the case because of a Freedom of Information Act request by the Mental Health Alliance, which established this. I have no confidence in the replies of the HSE to parliamentary questions because the officials are not answering our questions. They give us a vague overall outline, which is misrepresentative.

I refer to cystic fibrosis. I acknowledge the services for sufferers of this disease in Limerick. Isolation wards have been provided courtesy of J.P. McManus and his allocation committee under the chairmanship of John Harty. Private contributions by this organisation have made this possible.

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