Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Can I respond to Deputy Troy's question on mental health? The Deputy has raised this issue several times. On having seen a "Prime Time" programme recently, it struck me that if one says something often enough, it is taken as the truth. It is sometimes not the truth. We spent the €35 million last year and did so by putting in place 339 additional mental health posts. There are 42 on offer as we speak. The others are not filled because it is a question of geography. People do not want to go to certain areas. It is also a question of people living or working abroad. We must stop saying things that are clearly not true.

What I have said is the truth, a fact. The evidence is that in every community people have found the mental health service has improved dramatically. I have a list to hand of very large institutions in which, until recently, over 1,000 people were living. These institutions have now closed. They have closed because the service has moved to a different space and because it has changed dramatically. There was an allocation of €35 million this year, and with that we are doing exactly what we did last year. We want each region to send us its business case on where it believes there is a gap in its service in regard to old age psychiatry, intellectual disability psychiatry, forensics, etc. The national counselling service is also being rolled out. Circumstances are changing. Some nights ago on "Prime Time", people whom one would expect to know better trotted out the old line that we did not spend the €35 million. I do not know who is paying these people their wages. Someone is doing so; they are not working for nothing.
The Happy New Ear campaign was alluded to by Deputies Flanagan and Fitzpatrick. Deputy Flanagan should note the business case will involve a very narrow process. It is a case of determining what personnel we need to deliver the service if it is in Beaumont or if it moves eventually to the new paediatric hospital. That is in the future. We must ask what we need to deliver the service. I understand the point that if one does not address this, it will cost more downstream, but that is not what this is about.

This is a very clear plan on how we can deliver it. When that business case is made, the Minister, Deputy Reilly, and myself will examine it to see where we go from there. I assume it will not be done for nothing, so in order to get the money and deliver this service we will have to include it in the budgetary process and negotiate it, as we did with mental health services. We simply have to argue the point about this additional service.

The people I met yesterday are happy that there is now a process and they know where it is going. I did not make any commitment to them yesterday. I said we would have to go into the budgetary process in the same way as everyone else, but their case will be clearly made. I think they are reasonably happy with that. If it could be done tomorrow or the day after, of course, everyone would be thrilled but that is not how it works. They know what is going to happen and they are happy about that.

I dealt with the issue of community nursing homes in the Seanad recently. These beds are being closed because HIQA says there are not sufficient staff to deliver a safe level of care. We need to be careful about that because HIQA is our safeguard, both for the Government and those in receipt of care. That is the case even if a member of my family was in a nursing unit where they were getting exceptional care.