Joan Freeman (Independent)
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To follow up Senator Buttimer's statement, he asked the ladies how would they spend the money in question. He mentioned a figure of approximately €150 million or €160 million as a budget for mental health. I am not quite sure of the number but 6% is spent on children. In effect, we are talking about €50 million for 23% of the population that attends mental health services. We are talking about 55 psychiatrists for 1.23 million children. The question is if the witnesses had €50 million, where would they spend it?

As I stated earlier, we have had reports on children and we have heard from expert groups. The witnesses are experts but have they been asked for a response to any of the questions being discussed today? If I said the witnesses are the experts on the issues affecting the children of this nation, can I ask whether they had any idea before they went through this what was going on in our country? I would be interested to hear the answer to that.