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

I do not think we are going to go backwards in our mental health provision. The plan is, and A Vision for Change clearly states, that we will have a community-based mental health service as the big institutions that existed are to be closed. They have been closed and that is important. As Dr. Dermot Walsh told me when he came in to talk to me, we had 22,500 people in institutions in Ireland. We could not possibly have had that many people with that type of acute mental health issue. That could not have been the case. There must have been something else going on there and we do not want to leave that situation to continue or go back to it again.

We have a National Office for Suicide Prevention in the same way the Road Safety Authority, RSA, is the national office for road safety, but they are two entirely different areas. It would be lovely if we could introduce laws to prevent people from self-harming and dying by suicide. None of us wants to go there. The RSA can operate effectively within its remit. It can improve the road network and introduce penalty points. That has an impact on people's behaviour. We do not want to do that for suicide. We did that for too long. It was not beneficial and none of us wants to go back there. We have a National Office for Suicide Prevention and people must stop talking as if we did not. What works in the RSA would not work for suicide. If people would sit and think about it in an in-depth way, they would realise that. I would appreciate if people did think about it in a serious way. It is insulting to continuously talk in this fashion.

On career guidance teachers, we introduced a whole school approach. We recently had a group of people over from Sandwell to talk to the Irish College of General Practitioners, the ICGP. We have done research with the ICGP and it produced a DVD that will go to every GP in the country. It refers to depression, suicide, how to recognise it and what is the best approach to take. The people who came from Sandwell take a whole community approach to mental health. They bring in the churches, school, traffic warden, anybody in the community who has interaction with other people on a regular basis. They convinced us that it is a whole school approach.

If a student has a difficulty and acts out in class, as happens every day of the week, it may be because the student does not want to be in school, but it may be for another reason as well. There may be some underlying issues. Does a person in that situation really want to be going to the one office that is identified as the place one goes when one has a problem? Surely it should be about being able to approach anyone in the school. What if one does not get on with a particular individual in the school? Are we saying there is nowhere else to turn? Career guidance teachers have done an incredible job in this country, both doing their own job and being an open door to children who are distressed, but it must be more than that. There must be a whole school approach.

I am not certain I can give Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan any answer to the issues he raised here today but he can take my word that I will take a serious look at it. Given that people sometimes find themselves acutely distressed, clearly incidents will occur. The professionals who work in the area are conscious of that. They are definitely well-trained in the management of those issues and when they go into this highly-skilled profession they know there are dangers associated with it. They are less than in some other areas. Deputy Healy-Rae also raised the point of assault, but the accident and emergency department of any hospital on a Saturday night could be equally dangerous. We must be conscious of that.

I dispute what Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan said about warning people against approaching the services in Roscommon. I will look at the issues to which he referred.