When the health boards were set up, they were lumbered with a number of unsuitable institutions, many of which are still unsuitable for their current use. Many of our psychiatric institutions were built almost 200 years ago. They were certainly not designed to serve as acute psychiatric treatment centres, their current use. There is no point in crying about their closure because they are not suitable. Many of the smaller hospitals, handed over to the health boards when set up in 1970-71, are not suitable and many are surplus to service requirements.