Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail)
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I compliment Ms Margaret Brennan too. I feel that parents are forgotten in this. The biggest role in a child's life is the parent's. Ms Brennan has fought for all these services and awareness. I see that in the different reports. That is unacceptable because the first port of call is the parent. The parent will notice signs. If one is not trained to notice these signs, it is a drawback, because timing is crucial with issues such as this. A programme should be put in place for parents such as Ms Brennan who need early intervention. She needs to know the signs. She has children and is not used to this. It is a whole new world to her. In my own area, I see people fighting for medical cards, not being able to afford the cost of doctors and waiting to go on a list for an appointment. That is unacceptable.

I will go back to Dr. Muldoon and his excellent report. It is crucial that we set up a national youth mental health taskforce. Dr. Muldoon's report states that many young people spoke of the length of time it took to access child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. When one gets to a certain age, one knows that there is an issue in the system. This system is broken. It is not fit for purpose. Families are affected. There are children and parents who are crying out for help. They are really stressed because they feel that their children need that help. There is no help there for them either. The whole system needs to be looked at, as do all these reports, whether they are worked on or money is put into them. We keep bringing up staffing and I know how crucial it is, particularly with teachers in schools but also with counsellors. It could start off with the small things, such as extra help in schools or for parents. It is not massive money and it boils down to funding. I do not care what anyone says. There is a massive rural and urban divide. One can see it. Different CHO areas all get different funding. Many will get more than others. That is unfair. We need to make sure that everybody gets equal treatment and it is not happening here.

I was reading Mr. Saunders' report on advising the Minister regarding regulations for approved centres. He has gone through all the different areas. He says he had inspected 43 residencies in 2017 details of which are published on the site. He has noticed massive issues. We know staffing is a massive issue. There is the absence of privacy, space, poor repairs to buildings and issues with institutional care. What are the HSE or the Minister doing about this? These reports are fine and we welcome them but what is being done? That is the issue today. It is not acceptable that 82 children were in adult units. That figure is going back up. It was 68 in 2016 and in 2017 it is up by 14. That is unacceptable. A Vision for Change is not working. Can everybody get together and start listening to Ms Brennan and the children who are crying out for help, put a programme together and start with the simple things such as getting school counsellors back and helping the teachers? Train teachers in the signs. Dr. Muldoon said that one can sometimes even see signs by the age of four. We all need to address these matters for the long term. We must develop a system, help and awareness; the Chairman would tell the witnesses that at every meeting I have attended I have stated awareness is the biggest issue. Parents are not aware and teachers are not aware. There is the awareness of what they are entitled to and the awareness of signs. There is such a lack of information and until that is sorted, this system will not work.