Sir, - I am glad Vincent Browne is trying to draw the public's attention to the Inspector of Mental Hospitals Report for 1998. It is not only politicians who appear to have little interest in the report - the public has virtually none either. Only one person, Andrew Logue of the Disability Federation of Ireland, has contacted me about it. My correspondence on the problem affecting seals has been much, much greater.
Using my private member's time, I had the reports of 1996 and 1997 debated in Seanad Eireann in each year subsequent to their publication. These were the only occasions on which reports by the Inspector of Mental Hospitals have ever been debated in the House of the Oireachtas.
The conditions described in the report of life in our mental hospitals is frequently disturbing and must adversely affect both patients and staff. Imagine, in this day and age and with our prosperity, there are still complaints about shared clothes. Some of the elderly patients rarely have visitors who might speak up further.
Senator Fergus O'Dowd echoed my call last week for a debate on the 1998 report before it becomes an historic document. I will not have private member's time for several months and my feeling is I will have to wait for the debate until then. There are no votes in mental health. The long promised Mental Health Bill has not appeared either. - Yours, etc.,
Senator Mary Henry MD, Seanad Eireann, Baile Atha Cliath 2.