Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 July 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Mental Health Services (Resumed)

Mr. John Farrelly:

Hopefully, the Mental Health Act will be changed to allow us to move out a bit more. I am very interested in vulnerable people. I do not mean to be paternalistic but I mean the people who become unwell, may not have supports in society and fall through the cracks. As far as I am concerned as a public servant, my job is to make sure that those people are protected. They number in the thousands, approximately 1% of the total. The reason the services are not regulated is that Government policy is that they are not regulated.