Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State must be extremely concerned and appalled at the recently published report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services showing the unacceptable squalor that many psychiatric patients live in while the mental health services and the HSE are sitting on billions of euro worth of property, which the Minister of State has again committed to sell on behalf of the health services. In 2006, over €1.3 million worth of health service property was sold and €776,000 worth was sold the following year, but all of the proceeds of the sales were surrendered to the Exchequer and nothing was reclaimed to fund developments in the psychiatric service.

The inspector stated that the condition of our psychiatric services was poor, to put it mildly, as was the structural fabric of the hospitals. She stated it was a running battle to keep ahead of damp, mould, falling plaster and peeling paint and that the funding needed to maintain these hospitals is considerable. Does the Minister of State accept it is not acceptable that the most vulnerable people are forced to live in these conditions? The commitments made since 1984 by various Ministers have not been implemented. Given that there are no further funds for the introduction of A Vision for Change this year, how can we have confidence that something will be done?

The problems filling the multidisciplinary teams and the vacancies that occurred had an enormous effect on the delivery of services in 2007, according to the inspector. The problem is that the vacancies that occurred between September and October are not being filled.

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