Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Bernard Durkan for allowing me to contribute before him. I have to leave shortly. I thank the Minister of State for attending this morning.

The Minister of State spoke about online therapies. This is interesting. The Minister of State might follow up on what occurs in the other jurisdictions where these therapies are practised. How are conditions triaged? In recent years, our attitude to mental health has changed and there is not as much stigma attached to mental illness but I do not imagine that we or the Minister of State could say, hand on heart, that everybody from Bantry to Donegal is happy to talk about his or her mental health. While I do regard the initiative as having value in taking pressure off the services, I wonder about the absence of the general practitioner. General practitioners, who tend to have a whole-of-person approach to health care, note that if people's mental health is segregated to be dealt with by another entity, be it somebody online or a service in another jurisdiction, there is fragmentation. We heard last week or the week before about fragmentation of services. Having the general practitioner in the community as the anchor person for people's health care, be it physical or mental health care, has considerable value. Is the pilot to complement existing services or to serve as an add-on, bearing in mind the increase in the diagnosis of mental health issues and the significant rate of prescription of antidepressants and such medications in Ireland at present? We all know there are problems in the Irish health service. I am not against the initiative but would be interested in knowing the international evidence supporting it. How will it cascade down into the practical setting?

If general practitioners, in the first instance, and then psychiatrists are not seeing the genesis of mental illness and how it progresses in people's lives, will there be a deficit in education when it comes to health care professionals?

It is very hard to engage with some people when it comes to mental health. Are we going down a road where the people most resistant to treatment will be segregated and we only sort out the people who have a willingness to engage? I do not see how this will help that cohort of people who, whatever their personal or family circumstances, do not engage with the services. Will the Minister of State outline that, perhaps after the meeting? I would be very interested to hear where this is coming from.