Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, on her appointment. I have not had an opportunity to do so to date. I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate on proposals to tackle suicide levels within our society. I take great encouragement from the scheduling of this debate which shows the intention of those on all sides of this House to prioritise mental health. I am encouraged that we are talking about suicide in terms of tackling the problem as that is exactly what we must set about doing.

I agree wholeheartedly with Deputy Clare Daly on this issue. It is not enough for us to just speak about the issue today, tick a box and say, "job done" and not return to it. I do not believe anyone on the Government side and, I presume, on the Opposition side of the House looks at it like that. We will certainly not shirk our responsibility on it.

We cannot have a discussion on suicide without a discussion on our mental health services as a whole and the way those services are provided in a community as well as a clinical setting. I recently met an impressive campaigner, Caroline McGuigan, who is the chief executive officer of Suicide or Survive, a charity based in Arklow, County Wicklow, in my constituency. She had an interesting and simple way of comparing how we think about mental health to the way we consider dental care. She asked three simple, mundane questions. Where do we first learn about dental care? The answer was that we learn about it in our schools. Do we brush our teeth every day? One would hope the answer is, "Of course". If something happens to our dental health such as a toothache or needing a filling, are we embarrassed? Again, the answer is "No". These are the issues children learn about in regard to their dental health in our schools on an almost daily basis. We teach them that it is something that must be looked after every day. We give them the tools to look after their dental health and they know that if there is a problem or something that needs attention, it is nothing to be embarrassed about. We must give our children from the youngest age possible in our school system the same tools to deal with their mental health. We must get to the point where school children see mental health care as part of their development and overall schooling.

I want to put a few points to the Minister of State for her consideration in regard to the way we will serve the mental health needs of our community. As I know she will be aware, we must be sure that the involvement of service users is not just tokenistic. It must be a vital part of the planning process, and anyone I talk to involved in suicide prevention or mental health groups is very keen on this idea. Those at the coalface of our mental heath service with direct and personal knowledge of its impacts, strengths and weaknesses must be recognised as key stakeholders. In that regard I am encouraged by the work of the See Change initiative and the support given to this group by the previous Minister of State, John Moloney, and now by the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch.

We need transparency of funding in our mental health services. Having served as the chairperson of my local Health Service Executive regional health forum, I am only too aware of the current difficulties in this regard. It is imperative that we are able to work out how much this State spends on promoting positive mental health each year. This is a huge problem and at a time when we see the HSE board being asked to stand down we must try to clear these lines of miscommunication and get to the bottom of how much this State allocates to mental health on an annual basis. I implore the Minister of State to contact the HSE and insist that we are provided with a greater breakdown of the way mental health services are funded each year.

In any case, it is clear that the annual budget for mental health services can best be described as dismal. Nobody likes comparing one tragic cause of death to another, but as other Members of the House have said, the success of the Road Safety Authority in reducing the number of deaths on our roads highlights the impact that targeted resources can have. Mr. Gay Byrne has proved to be a successful and highly effective chairman of the RSA's road safety campaign. I ask the Minister of State to find a similar champion, advocate or series of advocates for the cause of mental health promotion in Ireland, thus giving a strong and coherent voice to the many stakeholders, advocacy groups and clinicians working in this area.

We also need to examine seriously the after-care provisions being offered to people who present themselves to our health services. I am not referring solely to mental health services in this respect. UK statistics indicate that up to one third of suicide deaths occur among people who have interacted with the health service in the previous 12 months. These are people who have turned up in hospitals, in community or clinical settings, presenting with some illness, yet within 12 months they took their own lives.

A successful system is currently operating in Belfast whereby people presenting at hospitals who exhibit any of the potential indicators of suicidal behaviour are immediately given a referral card. We should examine the potential for introducing such a system here. I encourage the Minister of State to examine the legislative perspective of this matter with a view to amending the Health Act 2004 and the Mental Health Act 2001. Both the Green Paper in 1992 and the White Paper in 1995 recommended that any legislation must deal with outpatient services, but this is not reflected in the current legislation, which focuses on the provision of inpatient care. I urge the Minister of State to consider this matter when the legislation is reviewed next November. Let us bring accountability back to this House and the Minister of the day. The HSE should set a statutory plan each year so that it is accountable to the Minister who, in turn, is accountable to this House. We can then take political responsibility, once and for all, for mental health services in this country.

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