Dr. Shari McDaid:

I want to point out again the importance of having a national director with authority over the budget for the entire mental health service, keeping in mind we only had a national director for mental health from July 2014 until 2018, which is a relatively short time in which there was an officeholder in the HSE who could look at spending throughout the entire country and prioritise spending based on need, deprivation levels in certain areas and trying to rectify historical legacy imbalances.