Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not know the actual facts around the two cases that the Deputy mentioned but clearly these units were built for a purpose. As the Deputy knows, the Minister for Health has addressed the question of incentives for qualified nurses and medical personnel to come back to Ireland. There is the intention to employ, I believe, more than 1,000 this year and quite a number of people have been employed in the medical services run by the HSE during the past 12 months. Clearly, there has to be a programme for people to work in these facilities and for them to be used for the purpose for which they were built. I will advise the Deputy as to what the current state of play is from the HSE perspective. I will arrange to have the Minister of State dealing with mental health provision respond to the Deputy regarding children being placed in adolescent beds in Kerry.

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