Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I give respect to Ms Brennan. It is great that her voice is here and more recently it has been proven in this country that ordinary voices such as hers are the catalyst for change. That is why we need to keep pushing this. It needs to change but it must come from our ordinary families and children who suffer in this country. I thank her for appearing before the committee. We are not that scary but sometimes it can be daunting.

I thank the Mental Health Commission also. What do they think about a prison becoming an approved centre? I looked at their annual financial statements in depth for the last two or three years. I am concerned about how much they spend on their legal representation. I would like a written submission back to the committee on that. It seems to be a complete overspend. It feels like the lawyers are doing what they do best but maybe I am being condemnatory of them. It is to do with the due process in tribunals. Mental health tribunals are important and have become extremely important for people's rights in this country but they do not represent the patient in the tribunal as such. They are only there to make sure that due process occurs but that does not give voice to the patient. I have grave concerns about the lack of patients' voices in that process because lawyers and legal teams supposedly representing them only tick the box to say that due process has taken place.

Time and again, the Mental Health Commission has visited facilities that were very poor and unfit for habitation such as Portrane. I know that there are often no alternative facilities but how do they justify registering such facilities and allowing them to continue to offer services even though they are so far below par and unfit? I understand that we would have no other facilities but maybe that is the push that we need.

I have worked with mental health staff and represented them as a union representative. There have been several occasions where we have felt like calling the Health and Safety Authority because of situations within our hospitals or approved centres. That may seem like a last resort measure but perhaps it would send a signal out that something needs to be done.

I thank Dr. Muldoon. He produced a survey with input from young people. There were two private CAMHS units and three public. The committee has discussed this before. Were there any stark differences between the private and public responses? What did children find good, bad or indifferent in those? Some €400 million is spent on psychotropic drugs and €10 million is spent on talk therapies such as play, drama or art and counselling. He also mentioned the restraint of children, that it seems to have increased and seems to be more drug related, especially with the powerful, synthetic drugs that are out there now. Could he comment on that and the challenging behaviour that results from those drug induced psychoses? I agree with the comments on A Vision for Change which was also previously discussed. We need to have more of a community effort and to look at the appointment of experienced professionals to run the areas of our services that do not have any kind of order within them.

We put that question to the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland and it was a definite no-no so maybe the witnesses might like to keep pressing that.