Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I am glad that Senator Ryan raised the issue of the development of the new central mental hospital at Thornton Hall. I am reassured by the Minister of State's comments in respect of the hospital having its own identity and a separate facility. This is very welcome.

He also made a point about the fact that children are sometimes treated in adult psychiatric wards. I find it difficult to believe this practice still exists. We have sufficient community residences to ensure this should not happen. This is one of the issues the Inspector of Mental Hospitals has raised. When the inspector visits hospitals, and I presume he visits community residences as well as hospitals, he inevitably makes the point that children should not be treated in adult wards.

It highlights the fact, which I have previously raised, that service providers such as the Brothers of Charity and the Galway County Association deserve more funding. They have informed me that they will be seeking funding for next year's services from the Minister of State. As other speakers have noted, the Minister of State has secured additional funding and I hope he can do so for these service providers. In the past when the old health board structure was in place, the money was divided in a very faulty way. A mathematical formula was found where one-half of the money went to Galway, one-third went to Mayo and one-sixth went to Roscommon. This is not the way in which money should be divided. It should be allocated on the basis of need and assessment. I would like to see this practice continue in the future.

I wish to raise the matter of St. Brigid's Hospital in Ballinasloe, which has a very good record in respect of the provision of services but which is being closed down slowly but surely, as the Minister of State is aware. Sites for industry have been located on the site, sporting bodies are seeking some recreational lands on it and the place is being wound down. There is concern that if property on the site continues to be sold, the money will be somehow diverted into services other than psychiatric services. Money should be ring-fenced for psychiatric services in east Galway and I hope the Minister of State can inform me at some stage that this will happen. The property is being sold off and it has been suggested that the money might be diverted to services other than psychiatric services, which should not happen.

Another very important issue relating to St. Brigid's Hospital is the question of what will happen to the staff when the hospital closes. We keep hearing that nothing can be agreed until everything is agreed, which does not provide the hospital staff with much certainty. I hope we can resolve the matter soon and put in place a deal for the staff in respect of matters such as redundancies and pensions.

I am very much in favour of community residences. As other speakers have noted, it is expensive to fund community residences because one is talking about admitting a large number of people from the hospital and finding accommodation for them, possibly throughout counties in the western region such as Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.

In particular, we should examine the services for people with alcohol problems. As the Minister is aware, St. Brigid's Hospital contained an alcoholic unit, as it was known, which has now closed. I always believed it was a good idea to have a unit for people with alcohol problems so that they could be taken out of their environment for their own sake and the sake of their families and spend some time in a residential unit. The new thinking appears to favour locating alcohol units and services in the community, but I do not believe it is always possible to do so. I am not convinced that it is the right thing to do in all cases. Some people need a residential service based in a hospital where they can be given some time, possibly less than a week, to deal with the problem they face. We must examine the issue of alcohol because, as we see from the figures, it is a very difficult issue with which to deal.

The subject of suicide has been mentioned.