Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their opening statements. GPs do a great job and it is not easy. I compliment them on that.

I read the report and it referred to the Irish College of General Practitioners having a ten-year plan that contains 14 recommendations. The ninth recommendation refers to building access to primary care mental health services. Representatives of the Department appeared before the committee a few weeks ago and they told us that funding is not an issue. How is the Department and Minister working with the plan in the 14 areas that must be addressed? This is crucial from the general practitioners' point of view.

Second, since becoming a member of this committee I have tried to meet various groups. Do the witnesses believe that people who suffer with depression and who do not have a medical card will not visit GPs because they cannot afford it? That was the main issue I encountered when I met the various groups. Can something be put in place and what would the witnesses recommend? Money is the biggest issue there.

I also met some youth groups during the week particularly with regard to child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and I was shocked to hear about a particular school that had applied for DEIS status. This week there was an announcement and more than 257 schools did not qualify for DEIS. If one is attending a non-DEIS status school, one does not qualify for some of the counselling services because one is not attending a DEIS school. That is unacceptable. The schools I dealt with are non-DEIS schools and they have been fighting for counsellors for the last few years. I could not believe it.

I understand that the south east is the only area conducting a self-harm intervention programme, SHIP. It is for young people who self-harm. I met several groups on this issue. The biggest issue is that one can only access that programme if one is over 16 years of age. Many of the people who tried to attend the programme were under 16 years of age and they were told they could not go into the programme. I cannot believe it. Can a system be put in place for younger people under 16 years of age? Many of the young people who went to this group were much younger than 16 years of age and they were just turned away. I was shocked when I met them.

I met many groups because I knew I was due to contribute this week and I wanted to get information on my area of Carlow and Kilkenny. I was shocked to discover from the list that Kilkenny has the lowest number of doctors at 37.