Mary Henry (Independent)

These are important amendments. I assume Adjournment debates in the Seanad are equated with parliamentary questions. It is extraordinarily difficult to get information. Almost a year ago, I asked the Minister for Health and Children in an Adjournment debate if he could tell me how many people with mental illness or intellectual incapacity for which there was no suitable treatment or institution here were being sent outside the country for treatment. The Minister said he could not tell me but he would ask the health boards to get in touch with me. Despite having sent a reminder after six months, I have had replies from only three of the health boards to date, almost a year later.