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

Thank you. I will try to be as brief as possible because I am aware that members of the committee want to ask questions. On the question of perinatal depression and pregnancy-related depression, we have only three perinatal psychiatrists in the country. In the context of the debate we have had in recent months, the president of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has put forward a very balanced view on the issue. It is not an argument that people were prepared to accept from politicians but could accept from someone who has been working in the area all of his life and for that, the women of the country were very grateful, regardless of which side of the argument they were on.

We are developing clinical programmes, which have suffered some delays unfortunately. Mr. Stephen Mulvany will be taking up his post very shortly. I had a meeting with him yesterday and we are both determined that those clinical programmes will be driven out. Those programmes will ensure that no matter where patients are located - Donegal or Dingle - when they make contact with the mental health services, they will get the same level of response and service. The number of women needing perinatal psychiatry services is very small but for the individual concerned, it is a serious difficulty. Having said that, it is not necessary to have a perinatal consultant in every single area. The development of multi-disciplinary teams and the way the clinical programmes are being devised to ensure specialty expertise within each team will address that issue.

We are progressing with the filling of posts and I am constantly badgering Mr. Tony O'Brien on that issue. The €70 million fund is ring-fenced and will be spent on nothing else other than those posts. I have been reassured on that point in writing. Last year 389 posts were filled from the €35 million and to date this year, 133 posts have been filled. A difficulty has arisen in terms of finding psychologists but we hope it will be resolved shortly. We are hoping that new graduates will help us in that regard. We are also having difficulties with regard to community mental health nurses. We will have to conduct a new advertising campaign and are hoping that the coming on stream of new psychology graduates this year will help us out. Another issue that is causing delays is that those who have accepted posts must go through a vetting procedure, which is as it should be. We are making satisfactory progress. It is not reasonable to expect that posts advertised in June will be filled by September.

Another issue has arisen with regard to the specialist recruitment panels. There is no point in having someone accepting a position in the service where he or she does not want to be. We must ensure that we are hiring the appropriate people for the appropriate positions and we have the people in place that we want and those people want to be there. Otherwise, they will move as soon as a position becomes vacant elsewhere. The process is a little more complex than we had originally envisaged.

Deputy Ó Caoláin asked about the dementia strategy. Comprehensive work has been done on a dementia strategy but its implementation will take place in the context of the Healthy Ireland strategy which involves a whole-of-government approach. We recently met representatives of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and other NGOs and they are now on board in developing the strategy. We intend that it will be a very comprehensive strategy. We do not intend it to be entirely health focused. Early diagnosis is hugely important and the Minister spoke earlier about an assessment tool. The assessment tool that has been developed by the Department is very comprehensive but an assessment tool is already in use in an area which straddles both sides of the Border that has proven to be hugely successful. It is less comprehensive than the one developed by the Department but is, nonetheless, very successful. I have been talking to people who have been using it and they are very happy with it, so we are examining that too. This assessment tool is focused on early detection and early diagnosis with the aim of ensuring that one can put services in place so that people can continue to live in the community.

It is not entirely a medical based intervention. We believe that is very important.

We hope to be able to allow people to live a full life for longer than we had previously expected in terms of the progression of dementia. Due to the consequences downstream and the amount of people we are eventually going to have to deal with, the dementia strategy is more complicated than strategies such as the positive ageing strategy. We will have the draft at the end of this year, but the strategy itself needs a bit more work, and I am not prepared to rush it.