€2m raised in mental health sell-off left unspent

THE HSE has been accused of letting down the “most unfortunate” patients in society as it emerged that not a cent of the €2 million-plus raised from the sale of former psychiatric hospital property in 2006 and 2007 went back into mental health services.

Professionals involved in delivering psychiatric services have demanded that any money raised from the disposal of land to be immediately pumped into alleviating outdated facilities.

In 2006, €1,331,803 was realised through the sale of psychiatric land and buildings while €776,000 was earned last year.

However, the HSE has confirmed that while all of the money raised was surrendered to the Department of Finance, “to date none has been reclaimed to fund developments”.

That’s despite the fact that hundreds of psychiatric patients are being housed in “poor, sub-standard conditions”, according to the Irish Psychiatric Association who want money from the sale of land to be ploughed straight back into mental health services — as promised by the Government in 2006.

With the population of our psychiatric beds dropping from almost 20,000 in 1963 to 3,332 in 2006, large-scale funding for new services was expected from the disposal of unused property.

Dr Siobhan Barry of the Irish Psychiatric Association said money is urgently needed for patient care. “The necessary developments in psychiatric services will need funding and that funding is predicated on lands being disposed of at a reasonable commercial rate and that money being reinvested.”

National mental health policy states that funds realised from the sale of psychiatric property should be ring-fenced for mental health services but the IPA say that this is “empty talk” as it is not backed up by legislation.

According to Dr Barry, a number of existing psychiatric hospitals have significant landbanks which could be worth a lot of money — such as St Luke’s in Clonmel, St Loman’s in Mullingar and St Senan’s in Enniscorthy.

Dáil Public Accounts Committee chairman Bernard Allen said he intends to quiz HSE chief Professor Brendan Drumm on the failure to re-deploy the property sale money back into mental health.

“It seems that the most unfortunate sufferers are being let down by the HSE,” said Deputy Allen last night. “We’ve been promised over the years that any assets that were disposed of would be put back into the mental health sufferers. This is clearly not happening. Not only is value-for-money not being implemented, but the money from sale of our psychiatric land is being siphoned off.”

The HSE said it has applied for €38m in funds from the sale of lands in recent years, proceeds of which “were paid into the treasury”, according to the rules associated with such transactions.