Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I wish to express my gratitude to the group for their time. I must note that they are here on a voluntary basis and not in a professional capacity.

I welcome the oversight. As Deputy Browne mentioned last week, we do not want this review to reset the policy document, A Vision for Change. We do not want to start from zero again once the review is completed. We are ten or 11 years into the programme and this will be version 2.0. We are simply modernising the programme, as Deputy Corcoran Kennedy said about social media, etc.

We must focus on stigma again. We have taken our eye of the ball, slightly, in terms of stigma. Great work has been done to tackle stigma, particularly as started from a low base. Ten or 15 years ago I campaigned and canvassed and I can recall that people did not talk about mental health issues when I spoke to them on their doorstep. Thankfully, all of that has changed over ten or 15 years and we now have a specific committee to tackle the matter. This generation must decide what its legacy will be in ten or 15 years' time. If we can start to break down stigma, life will be a lot easier for everybody with these conditions. One can have all of the services in the world but they will not be of any use if people feel that they cannot interact with them. I wanted to specifically stress that matter.

I would like the review to identify easy wins for us in terms of the implementation of A Vision for Change. Where are the quick wins? Often times, in these documents, one has the big and small issues. Where are the easy wins that we can start moving on straightaway?

Along with Senator McFadden, I would like to know whether the review will consider budgets. There is a big lack of knowledge about how the HSE spends the money it is given. I would like to be given a specific breakdown of the figures. One can talk about helicopter and aspirational views but if the budget does not marry them, we will be caught again.

Is an emphasis being placed on using creative arts and sport as part of a recovery model? The initiative is important and needs to be pushed by the committee. I believe this committee will work most towards implementation, as we discussed last week. We must outline an overview of where we want to reach but there are two cogs. First, we are discussing implementation and obviously the review will update same. Part of the committee's remit should be to invite the HSE in here to discuss budgets, to find out where the money goes and to drill down into the details in order to inform the public. I would appreciate the answers.