Five users of the Galway West mental health services are appealing to Health Minister Mary Harney to provide funding to allow them to move out of a hospital - where they have spent nearly 40 years between them - into a new purpose-built hostel.
The five men, who are long- stay patients at Unit 9A in Merlin Park Hospital in Galway city, are desperate to move into their new home in the modern five-bed hostel which has been lying idle in their native Connemara for the past two years.
The men have sent a letter of appeal to the Minister in which they point out that they were informed in 2005 that a new hostel was available and ready for occupation in Connemara. As they all come from the Connemara area, they were delighted to be offered discharge to the Inverin-based hostel.
The letter states: "With this in mind, we have been participating in rehabilitation programmes designed to ease our transition to community living. We have been looking forward to this move for nearly two years.
"We have seen the hostel, which is modern and bright and where we would all have our own rooms. Now we are being told that there are no definite plans to open the residence because of staffing and other difficulties. We are worried that we will have to stay in hospital and all our work towards rehabilitation will have been for nothing."
The men explain that the 40 years they have spent between them at Merlin Park does not account for other periods spent in hospital during their lives.
They say it is unfair that as voluntary patients who have been assessed as fit and able for community living, they are being deprived of this opportunity because of staffing and other problems.
They state: "We believe that the cost of keeping us in hospital is much greater than that of having us live in the community where our quality of life would be better."
The men are appealing to Ms Harney to open the hostel so that they can return to live in their area of origin and have the opportunity to re-establish and maintain links with their families who live in the area.
Galway West Fine Gael Deputy Padraic McCormack, who is supporting the five men in their attempt to move into their new home, has written to the Minister in the past week about their case, but received no reply.
"I want to know why there is such a delay in opening a facility that so much taxpayers' money has gone into.
"The building is in place for the last two years but the staffing and resources have not been provided to open it. I want the Minister for Health to do something about this situation as soon as is possible," he said.
A spokeswoman for the HSE West confirmed that the HSE had sourced community accommodation in Inverin, Co Galway.
She explained: "This will facilitate the planned discharge of the service users from unit 9A to their local community. This transfer is dependent on freeing up resources from the closure of a number of wards at St Brigid's Hospital, Ballinasloe and the further rationalisation of other wards.
"The closure of these wards was proposed in late 2005," she said. "Unfortunately, due to industrial relation issues it was not possible to proceed with the closure as planned. These difficulties have now been resolved and the wards in St Brigid's have been closed."
The spokeswoman said it was now proposed to proceed through a tendering process to invite a third party to manage this service on its behalf via a service level agreement which will facilitate the discharge of these clients from Unit 9A.
These arrangements should be in place in October, 2007, she said.