Dr. Niall Muldoon:

That is the essence of it. The system is ruling the child and that is where we are at fault and why we must look at it differently. If one starts by recreating A Vision for Change from 2006, one will recreate the same problems, whereas if one takes children out and asks what they need, a more favourable result may be obtained. The Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care chaired by Senator Freeman would, again, have many answers and suggestions in that regard. We are trying to work with the system without breaking it but sometimes one must make a radical change in order to change the whole system. Although I am not sure which element requires the radical change, people must be open to that. It is difficult for people who are now in the system to see the light and committees such as this must be brave and radical in thinking there is an opportunity here to do something different. It might take four or five years but that would be fine. One may hear of people waiting five years for suitable treatment. At least if they knew in the fifth year there would be something new, they would have some hope. When I asked the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, about the possibility of changing the legislation regarding clinical leads and who the clinical lead could be, he said it could take two or three years. I replied that I would be quite happy with that. It has not been possible to fill some posts for the past five years. People are worried that we will not be able do it quickly.

Nothing is being done quickly here. If one could create a plan that said it was going to take three years, I believe that would be viable. At the moment we are trying to find what can be fixed with €1 million here and €2 million there. Instead, we need to ask how can we do it better and what would work for the children.