Ms Louise Walsh:

I will take the question about flexibility of admitting children to adult wards. I would most definitely say "No". There are enough empty rooms and enough empty beds in our hospitals. An agency nurse could be put in a different room in each hospital. My son was around alcoholics and drug addicts etc. I do not mean to label anyone else in society but if a child feels at his or her lowest, feels worthless, useless and that society and their families are better without them, it is difficult if the child is placed in an adult ward. My son came out of there believing this was what he was. He believed his future was to be the same as the adults with all those mental health problems. The only thing he got from that was a firm belief that this was going to be him in ten years if he did not manage to commit suicide in the meantime.

I firmly believe that putting him in there caused more damage. One would not put a child with a kidney infection, particularly a little girl, in a ward with old men. With do disrespect to men, children with mental health issues should not be put in a ward with old men?

These children, whether physically or mentally ill, are sick children and they deserve to be treated in the same way as a child with gallstones or anything else would be treated. They deserve to be treated fairly. They have done nothing wrong. They are blameless. They did not ask for their illness and they need to be treated in the same way as every other child, namely, in a paediatric ward, where there are lovely paintings on the walls and balloons and toys in the corridors outside them. My son was surrounded by alcoholics and other people who were a danger to him and themselves. Under no circumstances would I say there is any excuse for doing that to a child.