Professor Jim Lucey:

This is a core agenda when there is a service that is so important to us. The largest source of ill health in those under 50 is mental health and it is the agenda that drives all our healthcare concerns. It is present in one third of persons who go to general practice and primary care and it is the source of 75% of our adult mental health need in children. It is huge, therefore, and yet only 1% of the service provision, response and reaction to mental health difficulty is held to a specific standard. All of the rest, as the previous Deputy mentioned, if they are involved in a response at all, are given a response that is unregulated. There is a difference between the professional regulation of a doctor or nurse of CORU or the Medical Council and a service regulation that asks what the response to this person in difficulty will look like as a whole. We need to move away from the personalised notion of the doctor or nurse towards a service recognition of the need of the child or person in difficulty. We will not get that unless we move towards service recognition. The Act is inspired by the dark history of the silence of Ireland. It is fine legislation and I worked under the 1945 Act for many years so when the 2001 and 2006 Acts came in, I saw the great advances in human rights and tribunals and in the emphasis on the service providers' duties and obligations. However, they are limited to 1% of the experience.