Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

Staff relations issues need to be dealt with under the mechanisms put in place. That has always been my belief and should happen. It is not the case that we are not aware of the issue, as we are very conscious of what is happening. We are keeping a close eye on the matter which I hope will be resolved, as such issues are usually resolved.

On there not being a unit available for admissions to St. Ita's Hospital, there are other units available. Again, this is about getting our heads around the fact that people do not always need to be admitted when they have an acute episode. We need to start to examine different ways of dealing with such persons.

Deputy Kelleher mentioned the late Sean McCarthy who has been a huge loss to the mental health community. He would have been the first to say and the person who convinced me that people in difficulty in terms of their emotional wellbeing did not always need to be placed in an acute unit. When the directorate is in place and we give it the sum of €35 million, we will see a fundamental change in how services are delivered to people with mental health difficulties.

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