Dr. John Hillery:

I probably should clarify that when I said I was dealing with a young person last week, it was not as chairperson of the Mental Health Commission; it was as a clinician. It is an ongoing problem. Obviously, someone with autism should not be in an adult psychiatric unit, whether he or she is a child, an adolescent or an adult, because it is not the proper environment for someone with autism and yet we lack facilities to support people who have autism spectrum disorder, ASD, and have behavioural issues associated with it.

One other thing the Deputy asked about was the staffing. It is an interesting issue, from Dr. Finnerty's report, that there were teams that had problems with staffing but they were still providing a reasonable service so that even though staffing is really important, there is an ability for some teams to work in a different way that allows them to maximise the staffing they have. We also know from Dr. Finnerty's report that the teams that were very well governed, using the term as an administrative and a clinical fact, were the ones that were attracting staff and had fewer problems getting staff. Going back to what I said at the start, the issue is governance.