Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thanks, Chair. I appreciate the chance of coming back in. I enjoyed the meeting. I got a lot out of it. Like a sponge, I soak up everything that goes on here.

I thank the witnesses and all the members who contributed to the meeting. We got really valuable information.

A question that I am often asked is, how would you fix the mental health services. I heard Dr. Keogh saying that we have to do these things incrementally. It will not be fixed overnight. People sometimes do not want to hear one say one cannot wave a magic wand and fit it overnight, but we can improve people's lives. I think that is all that people are looking for. They are looking for access to services being improved, access to 24-7 emergency mental healthcare and granting mental health care parity of esteem with physical healthcare.

Dr. Keogh mentioned early intervention. Early intervention is key. If we get the early intervention in at the appropriate time, the people who get this early intervention are less likely to need more acute services going forward. Even in monetary terms, and I do not like talking in economic terms, it is economically favourable to get the early intervention rather than provide support at a later time when more acute services are needed. In the primary care services, over 10,000 people are waiting for primary psychology appointments. The vast majority of them are children. We need to start staffing those services. If people can see that there are inroads being made in these, their waiting lists are going down and they are getting access to services, probably not as quickly as they would like but better than they were getting them in the past, that would bring many people with us.

There has been talk about the governance in the HSE and the clinical lead would be something for that. It is difficult to trace any money or governance issues within the HSE, particularly since the cyberattack which has made it even worse because we are not getting any answers back. It is like trying to get information in a vacuum.

They mentioned a cross-departmental approach to this. There is not a decision made at the Cabinet table that does not impact people's mental health. I have always said it. Whether it be housing, economics, health, transport or whatever, whatever decisions are made at the Cabinet table have an impact on mental health and we need to have that mental health voice at the Cabinet table.

Dr. Keogh, Ms Coyle and Ms Grogan talked about the cross-departmental approach and how it would work. I would not have 100% confidence that it would work in its current status. I will give one example.

In my area of Clondalkin, we have agreed funding for a primary healthcare centre. It is currently held up due to a row between the Department of Education and the Department of Health over land in Cork. That is mind-boggling. There is something that is ready to go in Clondalkin, but there is an issue between them in Cork and this is being used as a weapon between the Departments. We need to break down these structures. We must get to a position where civil servants and the Ministers are all involved. Ms Coyle mentioned joint funding that would work across both Departments, but is there any other way she could see this cross-departmental approach to mental health issues working? I would be interested to hear that because I believe that is a missing cog.