Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not give the Minister of State a bye-ball today. I am sorry but on most days in the Chamber I start by saying two words; "Linn Dara". We talk about it every day, day in and day out. It is indicative of the mental health services for our children in Ireland that, in the face of an emergency, we went and closed 11 beds, half of the unit. It just does not make any sense. Along with Senator Boyhan, I call for those beds in Linn Dara to be reopened as soon as possible. This is in the gift of the Minister for State, Deputy Jim Daly. It is not rocket science. It seems that most of the difficulty is around retention and recruitment of staff. I like Professor O'Connor's idea that it must be community led and come from within and be of our communities. Perhaps I will not be popular for saying this but maybe we should begin to de-professionalise a lot of what we offer to our children within our communities. This is where we are born and, hopefully, where we will die. Last month the Children's Rights Alliance gave us a "D". Heartbroken parents appeared before the committee last week and told us what is happening in their world. We need to respect them and I wonder whether the HSE is taking into account the independent survey of parents' views that came out two days ago. It is fairly mind-blowing and it tells us what we need to give to them. The cost of mental health problems to the economy is €3 billion, which is 2% of GNP, according to the 2011 Mental Health Commission report, The Human Cost. It shows that it is a growing problem. As the population grows, the number of referrals grows. As the elders, legislators and policy makers, what have we done that we have so wrecked our children's lives? That is a big question and I do not expect any answers. There are ideas on it but we must take responsibility and we must act.