Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses are very welcome. I apologise for being late but I was at a meeting of the victims committee, which meets at the same time.

I was struck by some of the conversation we have had and I suppose it reflects what is happening in the Dáil Chamber today in regard to cervical cancer and the scandal around that. With regard to the public perception of services and the chance of successfully treating people, what impact does this have on the roll-out of the services and what can be done to counteract this while addressing service problems? Mr. Rogan referred to the message of hope and the untold story and so on. We know there is a role for those people who have been through the services but that stigma is still there and it is uncomfortable for people to come out and talk about whatever difficulty they have had in their life. Whether it is a health issue or a difficulty with alcohol or drugs or otherwise, it is unusual for someone to come out and say it.

It is a question of how we structure our response and this goes back to the issue of the services themselves. We have had people come before the committee from various mental health services and they have spoken about their own experiences and I presume that has also been reflected here today. They spoke about the pressure on them in their jobs. For example, the people who came in and spoke about CAMHS referred to the lack of psychiatrists, the lack of supports and the lack of a team, and given they did not have that, they could not do their jobs. The Chairman asked about the financial side and bringing people together. However, one needs to have a work environment where people feel needed, and this applies in hospitals and throughout the health service. The huge positive for anyone working in these services is that the work they are involved in is life-changing and life-saving. That, in itself, is a huge draw for anyone who works in these services. It is bit like the position with politicians, I suppose, in that we are all in it to try to improve things, and that, in itself, is a draw to the job and many people are motivated by those ideals. It is the same with the services represented here today.

This should not be so difficult. The frustration that comes from staff is that it is management-led, we do not know who the managers are and money is being spent but we do not know where. We have recently introduced our own report and these were some of the frustrations that came out in that report. The witnesses might give their own impressions of what can be done and what can be improved in regard to staffing levels. I believe salary is only a small part of it because there are bigger issues.

On a final point on what is probably the biggest issue, we have the seventh worst suicide rate. In the opinion of the witnesses, what is triggering that? Again, it is a crisis we are all being affected by and it is happening in every community. Is it our unhealthy attitude to alcohol, drugs, gambling or some other issue, given there is a whole list of issues I could point to? What are the witnesses' views?