The opposition parties united in the Dail last night to demand a £60 million deal for the mentally handicapped.
They moved a motion in private members' time calling for the allocation of a minimum of £30 million in capital funding to provide residential and respite care, and a further £30 million to fund new services and places in education, training, sheltered and supported employment.
Ms Theresa Ahearn (FG, Tipperary South) said they were debating the scandal of a waiting list where the people involved did not require medical intervention. "Their condition will not be cured by the provision of elective surgery or treatment. The commitment from the State for the provision of services to those with an intellectual disability must be ongoing. What is required is, in effect, a lifetime commitment for each and every child and for their families."
Ms Ahearn said the intellectual disability database identified 26,694 people with a mental handicap or intellectual disability. Of those, 604 people were receiving no service at all from the State, while 22,084 people were receiving some service.
Some 1,439 men, women and children were waiting for residential and respite care, which represented one in 20, while 1,036 were waiting for the provision of day care. She said the parent of a child with mental handicap faced daily the painful reality that their child's quality of life would always be decided by other people. "Far from being the beneficiary of a comprehensive and seamless service, the parents and families may face a lifetime of struggle and delay."
The Labour spokeswoman on health and children, Ms Roisin Shortall, said that for the first time in the history of the State the resources were available to make a real and substantial difference to the lives of thousands of families.
"Successive Irish governments have a shameful record in their response to mental handicap."
Ms Shortall said one of the greatest worries for parents of children with a mental handicap was the total lack of respite care. "While the rest of us take for granted such things as a night out or a weekend away, for the parents of children with a mental handicap such events entail enormous preplanning and effort, if they are possible at all."
The Democratic Left spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said the motion was not a political attack on the Government; it was rather an attempt to focus attention on the growing needs of the sector and to ensure that, at a time when revenue was available on a scale never before experienced, a real effort was made to provide the residential and day-care places required.
While the cost involved, £60 million, was a substantial sum of money, the Minister for Justice was introducing a supplementary estimate of almost £90 million, including an additional £56 million for Garda pay. "Think of what a difference committing a similar amount would make to the quality of life not just of those with a mental handicap, but also that of their families."
The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said that while there had been a substantial investment in the services in recent years, and the overall level of service provision had been greatly enhanced, there had also been a corresponding increase in the numbers of persons with a mental handicap. He said that in the past year or so he had allocated an additional £25 million, which was more than double the additional funding allocated by the previous government.
Mr Cowen said on Monday he had announced a £13 million project, which would be funded jointly by his Department and the Eastern Health Board, to provide alternative and refurbished accommodation for persons with a mental handicap currently accommodated in facilities on the St Ita's campus in Portrane, Co Dublin. He had also announced details of the allocation of the additional £5 million capital funding which he had made available some weeks ago.
Mr Cowen said in recent years there had been a substantial development in the number of residential, respite and day places available to persons with a mental handicap. These had been provided either by adapting existing accommodation, by purchasing and adapting other accommodation or by building suitable facilities.
But the existing facilities were now stretched to capacity. Some were inadequate and must be upgraded, so a programme of new building was essential.
The House will vote on the motion tonight.