Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I thank the witnesses for their very honest opinions on front-line work in psychiatric services in Ireland. What front-line staff are facing is brutal and horrible. A catalogue of failures in psychiatric services means that many people have been failed by the system, and they will end up in a bad place. From the testimony I understand that psychiatric services in Ireland are undervalued, underfunded and understaffed. As other Deputies have said, other Governments have put the service into this disarray. Issues retaining staff, maintaining staff morale and indeed the pay and conditions of staff lead to this catalogue of errors. The chairperson of the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland, PNA, was before this committee recently,and, as Senator Devine said, one could hear a pin drop. It was terrible. Sometimes there are many adjectives to use. We can give out, but there seems to be a perennial crisis in our mental health services, and if we do not deal with this as a country, and as elected representatives, it will continue. It is good to hear front-line staff speaking out about this, because they are the people who will change the system ultimately through the unions.

My questions are quite detailed and I am not sure if Dr. Murtagh will be able to answer them now, but perhaps she could revert when possible. How many consultants in CAMHS are not on the Medical Council's specialist register? Have any official clinical guidelines been adopted according to the national clinical effectiveness committee for use by CAMHS? Have British-based National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE, guidelines been appraised for use in Ireland, given the lack of emphasis on psycho-social interventions and their emphasis on the use of medication?