Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I cannot disagree with anything the Deputy said. This is a crucial group, one we have identified. There are, of course, others within the group who never come to the attention of the medical profession, but, nevertheless, it is an issue about which we will have to do something very quickly. The training programmes we are rolling out, including the pilot programme in Cork, will give us the expertise we need both to identify and treat patients. I could not agree with the Deputy more that when people are released from care and discharged back into the community, follow-up, if only a telephone call to have someone to make that connection, is vital. We simply cannot abandon people as soon as they are discharged from care because, clearly, they are in distress or they would not have been admitted to the service in the first place. We hope the €35 million which the Taoiseach has guaranteed us will be available from the health budget will be used to put in place the people we need to deliver this service.

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