Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for attending. It is our second full day of hearings and our eyes have been opened. I have spent a lifetime as a psychiatric nurse and I know the ins and outs and intricacies of it all. As my colleague observed, recruitment and retention are important. I would say to Dr. Doody that the events relating to Linn Dara highlight the shambles - in its entirety -that is our child and adolescent mental health services. Every day, I plead with the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, to place the response to this matter on an emergency footing. There are solutions available. There are solutions in respect of recruitment and retention, including fast-tracking and putting in place acting clinical nurse specialists. I say that as someone who comes from a nursing background. These are imaginative solutions, as are those relating to education support and housing. The closure of 11 beds at Linn Dara should never have happened. As a result of the closure, there are now only 48 beds available for children and adolescents. This is the cause of so much sadness for parents and children who are waiting for access to those services. We have the capacity to place the response to this matter on an emergency footing. That is what we should have done; we should not have waited.

Can Professor Kelly say what a typical Friday night in Tallaght hospital is like when there are no inpatient beds available and when it is necessary to admit a child to an adult unit? Can he speak of the admission process and what he has to do?

My alma mater is St. James's primary school, where I have been involved in listening to the input of people from St. Patrick's Mental Health Services, the Department of Education and Skills and other organisations into a programme called Mission Impossible. The programme starts in junior infants and the proposal is to give 600 hours of well-being to children from first to sixth class. I want to ask the witnesses from St. Patrick's Mental Health Services for their perspective on a programme that seems to be achieving great results. The programme relates to the education aspect of this issue, as well as to matters involving housing and health.

On the review of the Mental Health Act and the emphasis on children in their own right, will the representatives from the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland say how we might begin this as soon as possible in order to help and enable our children?

Finally, I commend Dr. Murphy. He spoke from the heart and gave us the step programme for children's and adolescents' mental health. I commend him on doing so and I am delighted that he used my phrase, which was used by the leaders in 1916, about the pursuit of our happiness.

Happiness is a central element of childhood. When we think of that, we think of children jumping, laughing, screaming, crying and fighting. All of that is childhood. It is so finite; we do not have it for long. I commend the witnesses and I believe they make great sense. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.