Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

The €51 million was supposed to have been spent in 2006 and 2007. I would like to raise another issue relating to reconstruction. In 1984, Planning for the Future recommended the development of multidisciplinary community-based psychiatric services. The more recent A Vision for Change contained the same recommendation. However, various non-governmental organisations involved in this area have made it clear that there are no fully multidisciplinary community-resourced psychiatric teams in Ireland today. Therefore, it is totally inadequate to reconstruct the current services. A Vision for Change clearly states that there is a need to recruit additional staff to all parts of the psychiatric service, including community-based psychiatric services. Adequate resources are needed to ensure our multidisciplinary teams are fully constituted. That is not the case in Ireland, 24 years after it was first recommended.

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