Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last Friday, with many other public representatives, I was shown around the most beautiful mental health facility, Deer Lodge on Mill Road in Killarney. It is a wonderful facility which was constructed at huge cost, but it is lying idle. It has been ready to be opened for some time. It has been designed as a replacement unit for the very old O'Connor Unit, as it is known.Senator Ned O'Sullivan will know it on the site of the old St. Finan's Mental Hospital which has been disused for a long time. The facility will take 40 patients and have 62 staff and people would relish being transferred there from where they are at the moment. However, on foot of a problem I do not understand, this unit is not being utilised. It was built at a cost of I do not know how many millions of euro on the site of the old St. Anne's Isolation Hospital and is ready for use, but it is not being used. People involved in mental health in Cork and Kerry are very concerned. We are crying out for better mental health facilities because we need to look after people but this is an instance where a model building in a glorious setting in beautiful Killarney is being allowed to lie idle. It is absolutely crazy.