Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, a Chathaoirligh. I am in Leinster House. I welcome the Minister of State. It is great to have her present and to meet all my colleagues in this session. I thank the other members for their excellent questions and the follow-up on the mental health report. I also welcome the representatives from the HSE.

It is really important we get this engagement with the Department, the HSE and mental health services. It has been a really trying time. First, I want to pay tribute to people in the healthcare services, especially on our front line, that is, the paramedics, the fire brigade and the firefighters. I think specifically of acute issues when it comes to mental health. Hand on heart, I have been going around my constituency and I sit on the education and the mental health committees and I have been pretty taken aback. Some people have been very open in sharing traumatic experiences in their lives and very recent experiences. I am speaking about the loss of life or accidents related to that. It has been shocking and sad and it has really hit me in the past couple of months when I have been able to meet people outdoors in a safe way.

I apologise but I was not in Leinster House the whole time. However, I was able to listen through Teams. With regard to the recruitment process in the HSE, I do not know if the Minister of State is able to answer this question now, but what measures are being taken to accelerate this process? I have worked and I have experience of dealing with this. I understood the wonderful word the Minister of State used, which is "backfill". Does this happen in other European countries? What is the process for recruitment? Why is it taking so long? I know about this backfill role. Are we able to recruit from outside the HSE if this is causing a huge impact in terms of us delivering a service that is urgently required? This has to be taken into account. I would like a more in-depth understanding of the recruitment process within the HSE, especially around mental health services, and what is being used or done to speed this up, because it is not good enough. It really is not good enough to say something has taken eight to ten months.

The Minister of State said 40 positions out of 153 have been filled. That budget was announced in October of last year. This is 12 months later. I know people within the HSE are doing their utmost to manage and that it is extremely difficult to even get nurses right now. Do not get me wrong. There are many pressures within our system. It has dealt with a pandemic and a crisis, but we need to look at how we can help to accelerate these measures for recruitment, to support the HSE and to support delivering staff and resources where they are needed. I am sure all teams in the HSE would welcome measures to improve, increase and accelerate this process.

The Minister of State also spoke about Galway and the child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS. It was very good to hear that compared to others the waiting lists there have been reduced. The Minister of State mentioned the café. I worked on UHG grounds when I was in NUI Galway and I worked with the health services there. It is actually Mr. Waffle, a wonderful café, and I am delighted to hear about that sort of incentive and that measure the Minister of State has put in place. It is welcome but two weeks ago, there was a front page article by a mum asking why her son was let go from UHG. There have bee terrible incidents. We have Claddagh Watch in place, which is monitoring the river for people looking to take their own lives; people who have been released from hospitals. I would like to know more about the acute services. The Minister of State has spoken very well. I know we are doing an awful lot with community healthcare services and community services but what has been done about the acute areas through the healthcare groupings within our regions across the country? That café is one measure and Roscommon hospital has a unit in the area where I am. What is involved in other places? It has been a little bit shocking.

This question may be for the HSE, but what engagement does the Minister of State have with gardaí and blue-light services, when it comes to paramedics? What is the liaison there between those groups, the acute services and community healthcare west, for example, where I am? How can they feed back? I assume they all get wonderful training to deal with these types of events but it is very traumatic. I know counselling is put in place for a number of those front-line workers.

The Minister of State mentioned the digital divide. I am spokesperson on education on the Fine Gael side. There is a fund to mitigate educational disadvantage. Our Cathaoirleach brought it up. That is a great fund. It is being rolled out through the education and training boards, ETBs. It can be accessed by community groups. We need to highlight that community groups can apply for it. I apologise, but I do not know if we have gone past the deadline date. We may have gone past it, depending on what county or local authority in which you are. That is a great way for community services to access funding to promote further education.

They could get teaching materials. They can borrow and lend. They can have lending schemes there for laptops as well. I also advise people to link in with their local libraries. It is a great way to find out more about those funding supports for laptops and the digital divide.

The Minister of State also mentioned meeting with the Minister, Deputy Foley, which is excellent. I sit on the education committee and I know mental health supports are being looked at for primary and secondary school care. It is really important the Minister takes account of the report we brought out on bullying through the education committee. There are a number of recommendations there. One in three children is affected by cyberbullying. This really impacts. The shocking thing to me was that there was a higher level of bullying at primary school level. I presumed it was more secondary school. I would really appreciate if the Minister of State is speaking about mental health supports for primary and secondary schools, that we could look at some of those recommendations of that education report on bullying and cyberbullying in our schools published just before the summer.

I think the Minister, Deputy Harris, is also looking at some of those supports at third level, which would follow on for young people. I apologise, I am doing a firing-----