Mr. Mark Smyth:

I am happy to come in. I thank Senator Keogan. Working on mental health on the ground over the years, it has been heartbreaking, personally and professionally, to have parents in front of me. I have had parents who had late diagnoses and who had to act as parents, carers and prison officers at times because of the risks their children were dealing with. These parents were beaten down by the system. As the Senator eloquently put it, these are the parents who have the energy to fight. Many parents do not have that energy any more and it is wrong. We have a broken system and what is being put in place will not fix that system. It will make it worse. I have encountered parents who have loved and still love their children with everything they have but have said they could do no more. As the Senator has described, they let Tusla take them because they just cannot do it. We have had parents whose mental health has been impacted. They have given up their jobs and risked losing their houses because they love their children and fight for them. They should not have to fight. We have clinicians on the ground who are hearing these stories and are powerless to do anything about it. I agree that we need more staff but we need the staff to come into a system that is evidence-based, rather than throwing money and staff into a system that does not meet children's needs.