Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

The Deputy should bear with me, I did not interrupt anyone over the last two hours. Many of the recommendations are ongoing. There are several recommendations on training doctors. That will take years to do. I have strong views on the education of doctors and their participation in the mental health area. I have said that training of doctors in the psychiatric area has been taken over by the pharmaceutical industry. I have asked many people to look into that.

I agree with Deputy Neville's comments on alcohol, which is a wider issue and a major problem in our society. The mental health tribunals have not yet gone ahead and this is not due to a lack of resources, but because of an industrial dispute between psychiatrists and the HSE. I attended a meeting yesterday and another meeting took place today. I appeal to the psychiatrists to engage with the tribunals as soon as possible. I believe progress is taking place and I hope the psychiatrists will come on board. We need them on the tribunals as we are dealing with the most vulnerable people who have been involuntarily detained in psychiatric institutions.

I agree with the speakers' points on inequality and unfairness in our society. As several speakers have said, our media focus on success and as Deputy Higgins said in the previous debate we have an unfair society and do not pay enough attention to the vulnerable and the disadvantaged groups.

Deputy Carey is correct in his comment that we should not tackle suicide in isolation. It is a much bigger problem, and I await the expert group that will report later this year. They will specifically speak about suicide, but they will speak about the whole area of mental health, which is a challenge for all of us. I applaud Deputy Gay Mitchell's contribution about the value of the respective contributions of the various churches to our society. That is something upon which we can all ponder.

I agree with Deputy Stanton's comments about training. I have been listening.

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