Mr. Ciarán Devane:

It has not yet in this context but I have seen it before. I do agree. In many jurisdictions, mental health is an issue because it is complicated and hard to measure. One cannot stick a thermometer in a person's mouth and make a diagnosis. In light of this complexity mental health services have lagged in other jurisdictions as well. There is nothing the Senator says that would be inconsistent with that. I agree there is an issue. How we do the catch-up is the issue. Some very good work was done across the water around mobilising the mental health charities, working with collaboration with the health service, to change the social perspective on mental health. What we learned through that work was that the issue was pre-clinical rather than clinical services. Where there is early intervention there is less need for the psychologist, the psychiatrist or the mental health services later on. I have no reason to believe that would not be true here as well.