Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Attorney General has questions to answer as this matter has not gone away. The Leader will no doubt point out that the Government has agreed terms of reference for the independent inquiry. From what I have heard today, the inquiry may not take place for another year. Why else was the term "within 12 months" used?

Under Standing Order 56, I am perfectly entitled to table an amendment to the Order of Business. I propose the following: "That the Attorney General come to the House to answer the questions I raised last week and to which we still have not received answers."

On a number of occasions, I and other colleagues have raised the crisis in adult psychiatric and mental health services in the city and county of Dublin. I am sure many colleagues will have read reports of individuals being left waiting for eight days in an accident and emergency department before a psychiatric bed was provided. This follows the much-needed closure of St. Ita's Hospital when we were promised 36 acute beds and other facilities in Beaumont Hospital. None of us can stand over circumstances in which psychiatric patients with grave mental health issues are waiting for eight days in accident and emergency units.

Psychiatrists in the Dublin area raised this issue with the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health services, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, in a letter sent some weeks ago. I raised the issue several months ago when I referred to the Curám centre in Swords, the largest catchment area in the Dublin region. The Minister of State has not responded to the letter and neither she nor the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, has commented. While we have had useful debates on this issue in the House, I find that the Minister of State almost sets out to placate Senators by stating she is doing her level best. On her most recent visit to the House, I put it to her that she is failing in her job. There is no question that she is failing her responsibility to psychiatric patients, particularly in the Dublin region. We need an urgent debate to find out what she proposes to do. Has she set aside A Vision for Change?

Does A Vision for Change mean anything at all anymore? If they were present, the patients who are obliged to wait eight days in the accident and emergency department at Beaumont Hospital before they are allocated psychiatric beds would inform the Leader that the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, is failing them absolutely. The Minister of State must come before the House and answer questions rather than, as has been the case on previous occasions, trying to plámás Senators and inform them as to her commitment. I am sure she is committed but results are what matters. I have raised this issue on numerous occasions and all I can say is that the situation is getting worse.