Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

In my home town of Castlepollard I can look back to when the Cathaoirleach was chairman of the health board and the Minister and his father were members of the health board with us when we took the decision to place these very important patients out in the community. It was a great step forward. I thank all the members of the board at that time who allowed the three fabulous residential houses in Castlepollard for patients to come out into the community and give them a quality life in the beautiful rural lake district of County Westmeath. I look forward to quality living for these patients in the future.

The outstanding staff in St. Peter's Hospital over the years have given these patients tremendous care to allow them to come out into the community and give them their independence with help and support. We, as public representatives in the midland health board area, worked as hard as we could to get the Minister and Government of the day to put the funding in place so this could happen. The Minister comes from the midland district and has the practical experience along with all of us who served on the health board. We can say this is a great day and if staffing levels are the problem we want to stress to the Minister, as Senator McFadden said, that it is a wonderful step forward in quality living for the patients who will be the beneficiaries for the rest of their lives.