asked the Minister for Health the annual cost of maintaining Bawnmore, Limerick; the reason for the delay in making it available; the total cost of the complex; and the use for which it is intended.

The cost of operating Bawnmore at full capacity was estimated by the Order to be about £646,000 a year. As I indicated in reply to a question by Deputy O'Malley on 20th October, it has not been possible, due to current economic difficulties, to make the necessary finances available to enable the Bawnmore complex to be opened. The total cost of the complex is about £1.85 million. Bawnmore is intended to provide residential care for 150 moderately and severely mentally handicapped adolescents and adults.

Can the Parliamentary Secretary tell us how long Bawnmore has been vacant?

Bawnmore was officially handed over from the contractor around last September.

Therefore, it is vacant now for one year. Will the Parliamentary Secretary tell the House whether in that year £650,000 has been expended on maintaining Bawnmore in its empty state? Is the Parliamentary Secretary telling the House it is costing £650,000 to maintain Bawnmore as it stands at the moment, or is it intended to expend that amount of money when it becomes operative?

I thought the Deputy would be able to assess the position better than that.

My information is that the cost of maintaining Bawnmore empty is in the region of £150,000 a year. Would he confirm or deny that?

The Deputy is imparting information rather than seeking it.

The Minister told the House the exact position.

I do not accept the Minister's assessment of Bawnmore in any circumstances.

The Deputy does not accept mine or the Minister's?

It is a disgrace.

If the Deputy has a question to put, at least he should rise in his place.

The Parliamentary Secretary has given us a figure of £646,000 in relation to the operation of this hospital for one year. Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that a group of parents in the Limerick area who are keenly interested in this institution have estimated a figure of £70,000 as being sufficient to open this hospital on a planned or phased basis? Is he further aware that the cost of security alone of the building at present is about £30,000 a year? If the Parliamentary Secretary and the Minister for Health could give an additional £40,000 to this institution, then it could be opened immediately on a phased basis.

Further arising out of the Parliamentary Secretary's reply, may I, as a member of the Mid-Western Health Board ask the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health if he is prepared to meet a deputation, who will know what they are speaking about, from the mid-Western Health Board, the Brothers of Charity and members of the parents committee, within the next week or ten days? We will resolve this problem, not by the Fianna Fáil methods——

Has the Deputy a question to ask?

——and relieve the unfortunate people concerned.

If the Deputy was so concerned, why did he not put down a parliamentary question about it?

Because I do business in my own way and you can blow and fuss the Fianna Fáil way. We get our business done, not like Fianna Fáil——

There is no need to engender heat into this.

It is unfortunate that the plight of the mentally handicapped should be the subject of any political discussion here. However, I want to tell Deputy Collins and Deputy Andrews that the figures they have now given to me were also given to the Minister last week on the 20th October. They are not quite correct. The Minister said last week that he had agreed to receive a deputation from the interested parties in Limerick to discuss with them anything that could be done to resolve the plight of at least some of the mentally handicapped.

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