Ms Fiona Coyle:

I agree with everything that has been said. Mental Health Reform acknowledges that there has been huge progress in this area. It is fair to say that everyone agrees this should not happen, and we are moving towards a situation where it should not happen. We urge the Government to be ambitious with this legislation. By having this provision specifically within the Bill, there would be an additional legal duty on the Government to ensure the resources are available and so we as a State can say this is no longer acceptable and should not happen under any circumstances. If we really believe we are moving towards a model where it will not happen, we should enshrine that within this legislation.

We support the current processes for the reviews that take place and the data that are regularly published by the Mental Health Commission. Separately, we call for additional resources and recognise that this is very much a resource issue.