(Cavan-Monaghan): I appreciate that patients receiving social welfare benefits are allowed to retain a small portion of them for their own use. Did I understand the Minister to say that patients who are not entitled to any such social welfare benefits also get an allowance? If they were at home they would certainly qualify for a disabled person's allowance.

Yes. What I said was "allowances are also paid to nonworking patients with no income of their own".

(Cavan-Monaghan): Would the Minister give me any idea as to the sort of allowances paid?

They vary from £2 to £5 per week.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Would the Minister make sure that they get at least as much as the patients in receipt of benefits are allowed to retain?

That is what I have in mind. The psychiatric nurses made strong representations about this recently and what we are doing at the moment is finding out from the institutions what is paid, so that we can standardise the amount paid.

(Cavan-Monaghan): That would be a move in the right direction. The Minister will appreciate that it must be bad for some patients to have no money at all and to see their fellow patients with some.