Ms Audry Deane:

Mental health cannot continue to be a peripheral partner on the edge of the health and social care system, which we already know is broken. We wait with bated breath for the Sláintecare reforms to continue, get back on track and deliver us a fit-for-purpose health system. A few months ago, the quality improvement unit of the HSE said something quite spectacularly interesting. It said that we cannot go back to the broken system. That is something with which we agree. Covid has given us an opportunity to totally reconfigure the health system. We would go further and say that Covid has given us a non-negotiable opportunity to totally transform the mental health services so that they can become fit for purpose. Currently, capacity is just not there. We have shaming statistics for waiting lists for both children and adults. The ICT is so shocking that it is hard to describe pieces of it that do work. We do not have a system that is fit for purpose.

Our funding is 5.1% of the total health budget whereas it is between 10% and 13% in other jurisdictions. To go back to Sláintecare, our blueprint, it suggests that at least 10% of the health budget should be devoted to mental health. On foot of this, people can see how deep is the legacy of underinvestment and marginalisation. In addition, the outcome we have is a system that does not provide people with preventative care or any sort of access. We have an opportunity to rebuild and reinvest. We would like to see political leaders take the bold decision to allocate funding to where it should go.