Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is okay. In the NHS it is very important. I would deal with GPs in that other job sometimes more than any other profession.

The access to mental health services in the community is horrendous. Last weekend a lady whose GP had diagnosed chronic depression told me that it cost her €5,000 to get herself fixed. While she is not loaded, this lady has a good job and has private health insurance.

It struck me that many people would not have €5,000 to set themselves right. There are long-term costs to the Exchequer of people ending up admitted to an acute psychiatric unit. I want to put on the record the shock I felt in this regard. In the witnesses' experience, is that happening all the time? All she required were antidepressants and cognitive behavioural therapy, CBT, but she had to have the insight herself and, with the support of her GP, the wherewithal to go about paying this amount of money to fix herself and get her back into the workforce. I assume this is something the witnesses see every day, but I was so shocked. I believe her; she is not making it up. That is all I want to ask the witnesses today.