Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ceart go leor. Déanfaidh mé i mBéarla é. I thank Senator Freeman, in particular. This has been hugely important and is way overdue. It is the first time anything like this has happened in these Houses, as my colleague, Senator Victor Boyhan, has said. I have a couple of quick questions. I made a lot of notes on what the witnesses said. I will ask for their general opinions and views to help us draft the document that will be led by my colleague, Senator Freeman. I also have two specific questions.

First, I noticed a huge amount of frustration and despair as well as the witnesses' willingness and desire to do their job professionally. I also noticed that the witnesses are under serious stress in trying to do their job and are really struggling to get their job done for a couple of reasons. One of those reasons is the blockage with regard to access. There is no joined-up thinking. There are huge issues with regard to staff. Dr. Hillery, in particular, highlighted that. He has to find the time today to fill up the gap of work he has to do, which still does not fill up his week's tasks. Other issues include the out-of-hours CAMHS and the lack of electronic medical records.

With regard to solutions, I want to check with the witnesses to see if I have this correct. This came up during the session last week as well. Primary care teams and primary care centres seem to be critical to this. I would concur with what Senator Devine said to Dr. Eddie Murphy about that triangle. I did a triangle out and at the bottom of it is community. I want to get the views of the other experts on that. Community has got to do with primary care and schools. It is not good enough putting an ad on television costing €200,000 or €300,000 that tells people to talk to somebody. That is absolute rubbish and slightly disingenuous to say the least, as well as a waste of good money. The second part is about inpatient facilities. The third part of it is about emergency care. The triangle is turned upside down. Do the witnesses agree with that? I would like to hear their views on how we can influence Government to turn the triangle and have it working the right way up in the short, medium and long term. In regard to the long term, the witnesses mentioned A Vision for Change. That is more than ten years old. The witnesses are fighting a fire that is growing bigger and bigger. I believe the witnesses and their colleagues are getting seriously burnt in that fire.

I have two questions for Dr. Brendan Doody. The generic inpatient units cannot meet the needs of a fraction of young people. How does the witness see a way to change that? What is his short, medium and long term recommended strategy for that? He mentioned the admission to an adult unit takes place where there is a clear clinical imperative and that many factors contribute to this. What about the lack of qualified staff? That seems to me to be priority number one. The first thing I thought of is that if we do what we always-----