Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses are charged with refreshing and reviewing A Vision for Change. I am blue in the face, however, from talking about documents which go nowhere. A Vision for Change is 12 years old. Psychiatric nurses were excited when it was first launched because we had an input into it. However, it was realised it was just used as a fiscal scalpel towards services and not the rolling out of up to 70% of community services. How can this be refreshed by the oversight group if its recommendations were never implemented in the first place?

I get disheartened because the issue rolls on with report after report with no action. When we established this committee, we said it would be a committee of action. However, it is just rolling on with talk and reviews. I apologise if I seem to be giving out but it is frustrating and action is needed. Earlier the Seanad debated the Seanad Public Consultation Committee report on children's mental health services, which was produced under the stewardship of the Chairman and we called for her Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2016 to be enacted as soon as possible to stop children being nursed in adult psychiatric units.

It is possible but there is no political will to do it. That is an action that is doable but we are not even getting timelines. There are lots of barriers but there is a significant amount of legislation that could be enacted. I am sorry for ranting.

Professor Harry Kennedy from the Central Mental Hospital was here last week, along with witnesses from the Irish Penal Reform Trust and others. He was of the opinion that we should scrap A Vision for Change but I disagree with him. I do not think we have the right to scrap what is a decent document that requires implementation. He believes the document does nothing to address the issue of prisoner mental health, the rise in psychosis among prisoners or the fact that our prisons are becoming our new mental institutions because of the closure of so many long-term mental health facilities. I asked Professor Kennedy to be proactive and to write to the oversight group for A Vision For Change. I also urge the oversight group to write to him. He is a very able individual with some very useful ideas. However, I urge the oversight group not to take up his idea of scrapping A Vision for Change and starting again because we do not have the luxury of the time to do so.

A lot of research has been conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in collaboration with the Psychiatric Nurses Association, whose members have on-the-ground experience. A study was published in recent years which showed that 73% of the recommendations in A Vision for Change had not been implemented. I was very cynical when the oversight group was set up because I thought it signalled more of the same. I hope that the oversight group is using the evidence provided by the aforementioned study as guidance in its work.

I was quite impressed with the oversight group's work plan, which is just like the care plans that are drawn up in hospitals. It identifies the problems, the objectives, the dates and how we will get where we want to go. I would love to see all of the boxes filled out and ticked off. There was a suggestion that five town hall meetings would be rolled out across the country, which I welcome. I recommend the use interactive materials at those meetings and urge the oversight group to invite questions from participants and to get their feedback, either directly or through applications like Mentimeter. It is important to reach out to as many people as possible. Most importantly, I urge the group to hurry up and to carry out its work quickly.