Mr. Seamus Hempenstall:

We dealt with this matter in detail. On dual diagnosis, we have a programme manager for the national clinical programme.

We are developing a model of care which has to do with dual diagnosis. I also agree with the Deputy at a general level. People with mental health issues often have other issues as well. I believe they are called comorbidities. It is important from an individual care planning perspective that those things are taken into account. Developing a service to provide that wrap-around is more of a policy issue through Sharing the Vision.

I will go back to something Deputy Buckley raised about the Department of Justice. We are working very closely with the Department on a high-level task force for prisoners and for diverting people away from prison if they have committed crimes more because of mental health issues than anything else. The Department is working very hard and pushing us very hard. That task force is chaired by Kathleen Lynch, the former Minister of State with responsibility for mental health.

On the out-of-hours service, I had thought that was what the Deputy was asking about. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has prioritised developing out-of-hours services, crisis teams and that kind of thing as part of the new development funding for 2022. I could not agree with the Deputy more that people can have mental health issues outside of the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

With regard to what Deputy Hourigan said about guidelines and best practice for proprietors and people running mental health services, I mentioned that dual diagnosis model of care, but we are also bringing in a range of models of care to deal with a lot of new mental health issues that are coming to the fore. Eating disorders come to mind. Child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, have operational guidelines in that regard. There may well be no shortage of best practice for those who are running services to rely on, especially with regard to multidisciplinary teams that bring all of those things together. I am not sure that is specifically addressed in legislation because the more specific the legislation, the quicker it can go out of date. The idea behind the legislation is to present the framework and human rights basis. Those guiding principles can then be used as a base from which to develop operational guidelines and forms and models of care so that people can get high-quality mental health services.

On protected disclosures, I do not know if the Deputy was raising something specific. I cannot answer to that. All I know is my colleagues deal with such disclosures very seriously whenever we receive one. From my perspective, the HSE also takes them seriously. I will put that on the record.