Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom an Dáil a chur ar Athló faoi Bhuan-Ordú 32 chun an gné ríthábhachtach seo a phlé: the need for the Government to recognise that it is not acceptable to claim to be interested in protecting the vulnerable while stating that everything is on the table in its consideration of cuts and to acknowledge the areas of public service provision which have been chronically under-funded for decades and which should have been off the table from the outset such as, for example, mental health services, in which spending is now at its lowest level in modern history. More than half of all staff cut from the HSE in 2009 came from the mental health services despite mental health representing only 9% of the HSE workforce. Residential conditions in some centres are inhumane. Some 200 children were admitted to adult centres due to the dearth of appropriate facilities and people with intellectual disabilities are in inappropriate places in psychiatric institutions in large numbers. There is an urgent need for the Government, at a minimum, to hold funding for mental health at its current level next year.

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