Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I observed with great interest the Minister of State's caution around language when it comes to the issue of mental health. I also noticed the absence of a wholesome response to the substantive questions that have been raised here.

To focus again on the evaluation that facilitated the political decision to accelerate this type of reform, could the Minister of State share with the House if she is prepared to stand over the objectivity of the professional input? Will she also share with the House the timelines applying to that criteria in terms of the evaluation? I am of the firm belief that this evaluation took place significantly earlier than the justification to apply the matrix that was used by the consultants associated with it.

I wish to deal with the issue of staffing in the Minister of State's response. Under A Vision for Change, there is provision for 97 staff to be provided for the facilitation of this change across the region. To date, there are only 37 staff in situ. The Minister of State is accelerating this reform and change, which, we would argue, is based on flawed criteria. I would be grateful if she would comment on that. The staff are not on the ground to facilitate this organisational change. We both want to support the implementation of A Vision for Change but the ethos underpinning that change, that the composition of the community-based teams would be in place before the scale of this change happened, is simply not there.

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