Dr. John Lannon:

On the types of activity and entertainment available to people, by and large, communities are wonderful in terms of their engagement and openness to new cultures, experiences, food and so on. For people living in direct provision accessibility is the problem. If you cannot get a driving licence and you live miles outside of the nearest town it is really difficult to even join the local GAA or soccer club and to attend training. We are currently trying to find ways to facilitate access to training with one of the local soccer clubs for some people who have just arrived into the direct provision centre. As a number of members have said, it is a wonderful way of engaging and integrating.

On individuals' mental health and the age range of individuals, we are supporting people aged 17 to 70 in direct provision who are struggling with mental health issues. These centres, in many cases, are managed by private contractors with staff that have insufficient experience or training to provide supports or to refer people to the appropriate support services. This is a huge issue. Some members asked about our recommendations. We made a number of recommendations in our report on mental health as a short-term and urgent priority. We recommended single occupancy rooms be made available to people who self-identify or are identified by the health services as particularly vulnerable or at risk. That is critical but that does not happen in many cases. We need to listen to and follow up on recommendations with GPs and psychiatric services and other qualified health professionals. In almost all cases of which I am aware, a health professional has identified the vulnerability and signposted to what needs to be done but the follow-up has not happened. In many cases, the default is the prescription of drugs. Yesterday, I spoke with a man who lives in a direct provision centre and he told me that he is on, I think, 11 different forms of medication. He does not need to be taking that medication, but that is the consequence of the lack of other supports or services for him. We need to ensure that mainstream support services, including targeted outreach services, are available and accessible to people. The vulnerability assessments and effective independent monitoring and oversight by HIQA are important. Allowing people to be able to move out of the system is also important. The issues in regard to the backlog were referenced earlier by me and by Mr. Henderson. These issues have been highlighted by professionals, such as the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, as far back as 2009. We need to take action.

The lack of multilingual mental health support services is a real issue. When it comes to interpretation services, this is problematic as well. We need to do more in Ireland to ensure that there is an effective accreditation system for interpreters to ensure that the services are professionalised to a high standard, appropriate and compliant with all the necessary legislation.