Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Jimmy Devins, for coming in to reply this matter. Almost every day we hear harrowing stories of how the health service is failing patients, but there are none more scandalous than the neglect of young people with mental health problems. I spoke on the telephone last week to the mother of a 16 year old girl who has attempted to take her own life nine times. As one can imagine, that mother was at her wits end trying to watch over her daughter to keep her alive and safe. She urgently needs appropriate hospital care but she lives in a region of the country in which there are no dedicated child and adolescent psychiatric beds. As of the last information I received, there were only 12 such beds in the entire country.

This girl has been on a waiting list for months to get one of those 12 beds or a bed in a private hospital. The HSE buys in such beds in extreme cases. If it has no alternative and the young person must be hospitalised, he or she may be placed in an adult psychiatric ward or in a paediatric ward in a general hospital. When I contacted the HSE in the particular region in the past hour, I was told that this young girl is now in an adult psychiatric hospital. As the Minister of State well knows, adult psychiatric hospitals are not suitable for children and adolescents for a variety of reasons.

I spoke to another mother a couple of months ago whose daughter was in an adult psychiatric hospital and she was extremely distressed about this. It is a disgrace that we treat highly vulnerable people in this way and that there are thousands of children on long waiting lists for psychiatric services around the country. The strain on families who must watch and wait is enormous.

I raised this issue in a parliamentary question last autumn and received a written reply. The reply which I received on 19 October 2007 states:

There are currently 12 public in-patient beds available, six of those are in Warrenstown in Dublin and the other six are in St. Anne's in Galway. Additional bed capacity will become available in March 2008 with the commissioning of four further beds in St. Anne's in Galway bringing the total bed provision in Galway to ten and an additional six beds will be provided at St. Vincent's, Fairview, also in March 2008.

I was also informed in the reply that at that time there were 3,598 children on psychiatric waiting lists. I understand from a recent press report that this figure has increased further.

We learned relatively recently that most of the €25 million allocated in 2007 for the implementation of the recommendations in A Vision for Change, the report of the expert group on mental health policy, was diverted for other purposes. It is incomprehensible that this could have happened when so many children and adolescents were in such desperate need of services. I urge the Minister of State — I am aware this issue has been raised with him on a number of occasions — to ensure the €25 million allocated is ringfenced for the purpose for which it was intended, namely, implementation of A Vision for Change. This funding must be used this year to address the needs of the most vulnerable of our citizens.

I am particularly concerned about our young adolescents given our suicide rate. They are vulnerable young people who, when they need a bed, desperately need it. We must ensure these beds are provided for them. We must also provide the required community services.

I have two questions for the Minister of State. Were the ten extra beds promised in the reply to my parliamentary question provided by end March? If not, perhaps the Minister of State can tell me why they have not been provided and when they and further beds will be provided. The number of beds promised is only a small fraction of the number required. I accept promises have been made in respect of bed provision in Cork, Limerick and other parts of the country. However, it is absolutely vital that money should be spent in this area. I hope the Minister of State's response in respect of the ten extra beds will be that they have been provided and are available.

My second question relates to when the young person to whom I referred will get a suitable bed. I will give the Minister of State the detailed information in this regard. I have spoken directly about this matter to the relevant people in the parliamentary affairs division of the HSE and to the young woman's mother. It is absolutely vital that she gets a suitable bed. I hope the Minister of State's response to my questions will be positive.

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