The development of the State's first therapeutic community for people with mental illness is in danger of collapse because of a delay in sanctioning funding, it has been claimed.
The Slí Eile housing association, which is developing the 31-bed facility at Rathcormac, north Cork, urged the Department of the Environment not to renege on its "promise" to back the plan.
Funding for the purchase of the Old Rectory site had been pledged on receipt of planning permission, which occurred last June. But earlier this week the Department wrote to Cork County Council seeking further information on the project, citing concerns over "significant cost implications".
Slí Eile's chairwoman, Ms Joan Hamilton, said the project was now in jeopardy because the contract date for purchase of the site had passed.
"Everyone involved knew the deadline was in place. So why has it taken five months to come up with questions?" she asked.
" We will answer the questions in the next day or two. But we have to ask, is this a stalling tactic? It certainly feels like one."
The estimated cost for purchase and development of the site, a Georgian home on 10 acres, including stables and a lodge, due to be converted into step-down facilities, is €3.7 million.
Some €30,000 in costs, excluding architect fees, has already been incurred by Slí Eile, which is composed mainly of parents whose children are "caught up in the revolving door" of Ireland's psychiatric care system.
"Some 75-80 per cent of admissions to psychiatric hospitals are return admissions - that says it all. People are discharged to nothing, there is no support. Then they're readmitted, and all the time they are getting worse, not better."
Ms Hamilton's own daughter, Geraldine (39), has experienced this "heartbreaking" cycle for the past 20 years. "When she is discharged she goes back to a family that is traumatised and not able to understand. Then, every time she goes back to hospital she feels more of a hopeless case."
Of more than 40 families represented by Slí Eile, two have lost members to suicide this year, and three last year. "For a mother to listen to her son crying 'Please take me out of here' and have to say 'I can't' is just terrible," Ms Hamilton said.
In October 2002 Cork County Council wrote to the group saying: "The Department has advised that funding under the terms of the scheme will be made available for this project when planning permission has been obtained."
However, last Monday it wrote: "Serious concerns have arisen in the Department regarding the feasibility of this project". The council sought clarification on a range of issues, including the condition of the building and whether there were funding commitments from the Southern Health Board.
A spokesman for the Department said there had not been any deliberate delay on its part. "Before we invest substantial taxpayer money we have to be satisfied with the project. We are awaiting a response to our queries," he added.
The project was a matter in the first instance for the local authority. But a spokesman for the county council said it was only an intermediary in the affair, claiming funding depended entirely on the Department. Denying the suggestion that it was responsible for a delay, he added: "We have co-operated with both parties. There is not a situation where we have left a file to gather dust."
Slí Eile has suspended a scheduled protest next Monday outside the county council's regional offices in Mallow pending the delivery of a reply to the questions. However, Ms Hamilton was unable to hide her disappointment with the local authority's approach.
"The push should have come from Cork County Council. They should have been lobbying on our behalf because we don't have the same access to the Department. This will be an asset for all of Cork," she said.
She said the Southern Health Board was "very interested" in supporting the project but was unable to commit funds before the site had been purchased.
Slí Eile's campaign was backed this week by Ms Julie Watson, vice-president of the mental health movement Grow International. Speaking on a visit to Ireland, she said the Cork project was very much needed. Ms Watson was a resident in a community project in Illinois on which Rathcormac is based.
"For the previous 20 years I had tried everything - hospitalisation, detox, rehabs. I was told I would never function normally But I would not be sitting here today if I had not participated in the residential programme."
