Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to go back to a question from my first round of questions to Dr. Doody, which has also been touched on by other Deputies.

Other Deputies have raised the inevitable impact on mental health perhaps by people who have not previously accessed mental health services. There is also the matter of altering treatment plans for those already engaged with the service being altered. I return to the point made by Mr. Farrelly at the beginning, which I agree with as do many other Deputies, that our current community mental health services are not fit for purpose. We have spoken about returning to some level of service that resembles normality even though, for example, there will not be any new primary school service. Has the HSE examined the expected increase in demand for acute mental health services? An answer has not been fleshed out here. Inevitably, there will be a further reduction in service for those in real need.