Ms Alice Leahy:

It is good to hear from Deputy Gould in the real capital. Deputy Duffy mentioned mental health issues. I did not have a chance to address that matter. Our mental health services are not properly resourced. They never were, but they have to be. We have to look outside the medical model.

It goes without saying that staff working with people who are vulnerable need support. That is precisely why the title of my opening statement was, "Wasting Time with People?" We have to give time to staff to enable them to work with complex people. We owe it to the staff but we also owe it to the people who need to use the services. We had a training day in conjunction with Dublin City Council some years ago. It was effective in helping people to understand how we deal with someone who is different. Perhaps a person was not as complex as the Deputy had in mind. Anyway, we can only do that if we have training and support. We have guidelines for all our staff. We all work very much as a team. This is one of the issues in the whole area of homelessness. We need people with experience of life and living, people who have gone through the university of life, as well as the young people who are bright, caring and efficient. They can support each other to help the most vulnerable. Apart from the points made by the members, it requires going back to basics and working from that level. That is something all public representatives at any level can do, because they have contact with the people in the community. It is a problem of our times.