I read in this morning's newspapers about the Taoiseach in Poland, on CNN and Sky News. I understand that he is big in China today, and that is all good for the country. Does he get any opportunity to have a look at our modest home-grown, under resourced little station in Donnybrook and in particular did he see the programme that showed the acute distress of some families attempting to cope with children who have intellectual disabilities? There are hundreds of families in the same circumstances. They probably all have two things in common. One is that they are all contemplating legal action against the State because they have no right to specialist services; and most of them have considered suicide as the only way out of the dilemma in which they find themselves.

It is difficult to imagine what it must be like for families in those circumstances, unless one has experienced it. My own most recent direct experience is of a mother with two autistic children. My office spent many hours every week on her case over 13 months before we got some modest minimalist relief for her. There are hundreds of families like that. There are 1,633 awaiting residential places, 682 looking for day care services and 1,400 awaiting respite care.

Will the Taoiseach say why the State has no strategy in this area? Why is there such an acute shortage of specialist staff, for example, in speech therapy, where the embargo is biting? Why are there day centres — as well as other centres for residential as well as respite care — that cannot open because staff are not provided? There is an embargo. The money is not provided in a country that can waste €52 million on a failed electronic voting experiment, or €15 million for horses at Punchestown. Yet we have families in these circumstances desperate for relief. Sunday and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, every day is the same.

Where is the disability Bill? Why is it not being published before the election? Why does it keep slipping? Why has it been promised virtually every month since the election and in An Agreed Programme for Government? The last commitment was that it would be published before Christmas. I am afraid it will not now be published until after the elections, because it will not live up to the promises the Taoiseach solemnly made in the programme for Government, in terms of the remit of that Bill to give people legal enforceable rights.

Before I answer some of the Deputy's questions, I saw some of the programmes he mentioned on our national television station which is not under resourced, as he said. It is resourced better than ever. I saw some of these cases. As long as one family remains in such a plight, a job has still to be done. This Government recognises that. For this reason we have substantially increased resources every year. We are now spending well more than €1 billion. Five years ago, in 1999, the figure was about half a billion. We agreed last December that additional resources were required.

There are difficulties in getting professional staff. As Deputy Rabbitte knows, most of these staff come from abroad. We have recruited people and been actively engaged in recruitment campaigns. While there were some problems about the embargo we have sought to find ways around it for this sector. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley, was successful in acquiring additional resources for staff and services this year. They have been engaged in discussions on how to surmount these problems.

There are approximately 1,700 additional residential places mainly based in the community. These figures include residential respite places in recent years. There has been a 37% growth in the number of people with intellectual disabilities living in full-time residential places in communities. There has been a 165% increase in the provision of intensive places designed to meet the needs of individuals with challenging behaviours, including those whose behaviour may arise as a result of a dual diagnosis of intellectual disability and mental illness. There has been a 47% reduction in the number of people accommodated in psychiatric hospitals, which is a significant achievement. There has been a continual expansion in the availability of residential support services, in particular service-based respite provision. That has grown by255%, an additional 443 people have received those services in the past two years. Substantial improvements are occurring.

It is true that not everyone who needs a residential place has got one. We continue to try to improve that situation. The assessment of needs for the coming years spells out the figures we must achieve. Of the 1,633 people who require a residential place over the next five years according to the last index, 96% are already in receipt of day places. Therefore, we must continue to try to ensure they have the opportunity to get residential places as they require and as the age profile advances. We are committed to that.

I can also give the figures on sensory disabilities and others, if people wish, but Deputy Tim O'Malley has spelt those out. We are committed to producing not only a disabilities Bill we believe is better than any similar legislation anywhere in the world but one on which we can garner as much support as possible.

Once again the Taoiseach takes shelter behind the billions of euro spent on this and that. Does he disagree with the Disability Federation when it says that in the last two years no service provider has been able to afford new residential, educational or respite places? Is that the case? If it is, what is the point in talking abstractly in billions of euro? The reality we saw on television last night and the night before shows the circumstances in which people are living. We have heard on three occasions of the commitment to sell off land that would be ring-fenced for investment in services for people with disabilities, first from Deputy Cowen before he escaped the health portfolio, then from the Taoiseach, except he said the land at St. Ita's hospital would be sold off for social housing.

The Deputy must conclude.

The Ceann Comhairle is very strict with me but not quite so strict with the Taoiseach.

The Deputy has gone well over time on his first question and he was the Member who raised the question of Members going over time.