Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I turn to the reality of what is happening in our mental health services across the board. I do not know what kind of key performance indicators the HSE is using, but I can tell the witnesses of an adult who has been separated from her children for a couple of weeks, inflicted by her mother, who took her in because she is not coping mentally. She visited local mental health services where the doctor told her to go home and cop herself on. They are probably not the words, but they were to that effect, and he said that he would see her in three months when she had been away from her small children for two weeks. Her mother was with her and intervened, at which point he conceded that he would see her in a month. Where are we going, and what kind of monitoring are we doing? Another doctor told a woman he did not believe in menopause and took her off her medication. I could be here forever. I can tell you that I am proof menopause exists if anybody wants to drive at me, no problem at all. It is not something a doctor should use as a throwaway remark.