asked the Minister for Health when funding will be provided to provide staff for the fully equipped ten-bed bungalow, Glencorry, at St. Michael's House, Ballymun, Dublin, particularly in view of the fact that there is a waiting list of at least 300 mentally handicapped in immediate need of residential care.

Between July 1980 and December 1982 my Department approved of the recruitment of 52 staff to enable the new centre at St. Michael's House, Ballymun to become operational. This was done despite the general restrictions on the recruitment of additional personnel in the health services.

In October 1984 I met with a delegation from St. Michael's House when I discussed the difficulties being experienced by the organisation. Following this meeting, I increased their 1985 revenue allocation by £150,000 to alleviate the burden of their commitments.

Could the Minister be a little more specific? Is he aware that there is a fully equipped ten-bed facility for the mentally handicapped, to provide residential care at St. Michael's House, Ballymun? That facility is not being used simply because there is not the necessary funding to provide the resident staff. Is it intended to provide sufficient funding to allow St. Michael's House to employ the staff to bring this facility into operation?

In so far as I was directly concerned in December 1982, as part of the exemption to the embargo on the recruitment of staff in the mentally handicapped services, I approved the recruitment of 30 extra staff to enable the remaining three units to be commissioned in Saint Michael's House. That was quite an exceptional change of policy at the time. Then, in October 1984, I met a delegation from St. Michael's when the difficulties facing the house became evident because they had recruited additional staff without the approval of the Department. As a consequence of reviewing that situation in 1985 we allocated another £150,000 to meet the costs of pay of those staff which had been met heretofore from private resources within St. Michael's. Officers of my Department will be discussing these matters with St. Michael's House shortly with a view to resolving all of the difficulties within the limits of their 1985 allocation.

The only point I would make to organisations such as St. Michael's House is that they should keep in the closest touch with my Department so that we and they know what is going on.

The Minister is well aware of this facility. I raised it in the House not so long ago. It seems to me to be a matter of public scandal that there are so many hundreds of persons who are mentally handicapped on the priority waiting lists of the health board for residential care who cannot get that residential care simply because the accommodation is not available. It is a matter of public scandal that, in that context, there is a fully equipped facility available in St. Michael's House while all that is required for it to be brought into use is that the Minister sanction sufficient funding to allow St. Michael's House to staff that facility. I might ask this specific question of the Minister: does he intend to provide sufficient funding to St. Michael's House for the specific requirement of staffing the facility to which I have referred in my question? The Minister has failed to answer that specific question on the Order Paper which I have asked twice already.

It is certainly not from failure to ask that it has not been answered, if it has not been answered.

Thank you for your assistance, A Cheann Comhairle,——

I do not intend to be helpful. I intend to point out the position.

That is a new policy, A Cheann Comhairle, that you do not intend to be helpful.

It is not the role of the Chair to be helpful or unhelpful to a Deputy.

It is the role of the Chair to be helpful at all times, just as we are helpful to you.

The present position is that I do not have at present a detailed request from St. Michael's for further staff. I have made available an additional £150,000 for 1985 to enable St. Michael's to pay the staff they recruited without formal sanction; they were paying them privately. I am quite prepared to discuss with St. Michael's House any additional moneys they might need for 1985 but they have received a substantial increase. I have to balance their needs with, for example, the opening of Cheeverstown, where we are spending an additional £1 million this year, on the south side of the city, on their catchment area. I can assure the Deputy there has been no shortage of funds for St. Michael's, and that their capacity to twist arms is quite substantial.

This is positively the final question, Deputy.

Unforunately the Minister is not proving to be as helpful as yourself, a Cheann Comhairle.

I want to point out that the Chair cannot allow argument on each question.

I am not attempting to argue the point. I will simply ask the Minister and hope for a reply: will he undertake to contact St. Michael's House, or have officials of his Department, to contact them to establish whether the details I have given are correct? If they are correct will the Minister give a commitment to take action to provide the necessary staff for this very badly needed facility?

I can assure the Deputy that I will do just that and I will write to him about it.

10.