Dr. Kieran Moore:

It is not personal to anybody but I am not entirely sure. For example, there is a head of mental health and an executive clinical director. Both appear to be at the same level. I asked both if I could see their job descriptions but I was told I am not allowed to see them. That is either because there is none or I am just not allowed. I am not sure why. In the case of any other medical or nursing professional it is on the website and one can check what the expertise is. As I have said previously, it is like having two taoisigh. If there were two taoisigh and we were required to ask both what we were to do, I doubt that the country would run particularly well. In fairness to both people, they said they do not know and that it has to be resolved at national level. What is the national level? I do not know. There is a huge disconnect between a national level that does not get to see what is happening on the ground and the local level where often the managers do not see it either. Much of that is fear. People are not trained in a particular area. In child psychiatry, which is my area, and adult psychiatry there is still a stigma and a fear of meeting people. There should not be. It should be mandatory that people would meet and understand that people who suffer from mental illness - it is not health - are like the rest of us in every other area.

The State continues to treat people with psychiatric illness as second class citizens. It does so repeatedly. We would not send somebody with asthma to a hospital 400 km away, if they can get into it, with no parents and away from family and home. However, we do it with somebody who has depression. What are we doing?