Are there any proposals in the Minister's Department regarding day care of adult mentally handicapped people who are having considerable difficulty at present in finding places, particularly on the north side of Dublin?

I am anxious to spend the moneys I have in the kind of framework used, for example, in one outstanding area, in community based services along the lines followed in Gort, County Galway. I do not know if the Deputy has had the opportunity of seeing what is being done there but I strongly recommend him to visit the Orchard Centre in Gort where, at a relatively low cost and with effective staffing, there is a very good system of community based services organised by the Brothers of Charity. I am quite convinced that, even in the Dublin area, with little expenditure of money but taking more account of climate and role, which is far better than the large institutional structure, that type of service could be brought on-stream rapidly. My Department are at present looking very rigorously and swiftly at that kind of development. I am quite prepared to discuss the matter with the Deputy.