Ms Paula Dalton:

In respect of saving money, the waiting lists are so long in all areas in the HSE, even for assessments of need, AONs, and early intervention. They are outsourcing health. They should employ people because they are paying so much more for outsourcing. They are wasting really good money that could be put to use in the mental health services. That is going on daily in every county. I recently realised how much of it is going on in Waterford and I was shocked. That is good money they are throwing away. I do not mean the money they are spending on assessing the children. If they would hire someone instead of outsourcing, they would save money in the long run.

Again in the hospitals, staff are not getting paid enough. I agree they should be paid more. We would have people willing to come and work. I found out recently that in our local hospital, there was a huge shortfall of psychiatric nurses because they just left. They did not want to work in those conditions.

To answer Senator Freeman's question, I knew the situation was a little bit severe as regards mental health but I had no idea how bad it was. I do not think people understand until they are going through it. Much more awareness needs to be raised. We need to highlight this. I did not know, so how would anyone else know? It is the vulnerable people who are suffering. We need people to be more aware and we need to teach everyone. For my neighbour, everything is alright at the moment but she does not know that in two years' time, maybe, her daughter will not be bullied. There is no knowing.

The numbers are increasing. More and more children need help, particularly in Dublin. More money will be needed to help these children if a solution is not found because the number of them needing help keeps increasing.