Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend this motion as for too many years, the whole area of mental health has been the Cinderella of the health service. Over the years while growing up and in common with many people, when visiting different towns I wondered what was this big house or what was the history of that big building. One often was told that it was the psychiatric hospital, which was where people were put out of the way. We lost our humanity somewhere along the way. In ancient civilisations such as, for example, in Roman times, if one visited a friend who was suffering from mental health issues, they had a phrase that the person was in Saturn. It was understood that such people were taking time out. They might be going for a walk or writing poetry. They were taking time out. Their family and friends supported them and they would be back again when they were ready. This was fully understood and the same applied in our ancient Celtic civilisation. Throughout all of history and in all the various civilisations, records exist of support being available when mental health issues arose.

In the industrial era people became units of profits and labour and we lost our humanity. If people did not show up for work, they were not paid and could not pay their bills. They were expected to toughen up and get on with it. We are supposed to have come a long way, learned lessons and adopted a community-centred approach. This motion is important because the supports required at community level - the key personnel who must be appointed to perform vital functions - are not in place.

Like my colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, I commend the individuals, community groups and non-governmental organisations in civic society that have filled the gap. They have, for example, developed strategies on suicide prevention, introduced supports and provided the infrastructure the Government and its predecessors have failed to establish. We have heard much rhetoric and many commitments and promises have been made, but none has been delivered. It was remarkable that, until recently, there were delays in filling almost every key post dealing with mental health supports in County Donegal. Not all of these delays can be blamed on the moratorium on public sector recruitment. Those providing front-line psychiatric services are extremely critical of the delivery of services, especially the slow pace involved.

A national campaign is required on suicide awareness, similar to the successful campaigns on road safety. We need to see people telling their stories. In addition, supports must be provided on the ground.

Every Member of the Oireachtas will have known someone who has taken his or her life. In some cases, they will have been people we loved and we did not see the signs. As with deaths from road traffic collisions, not every case of suicide can be prevented, regardless of what one does. Nevertheless, the number of deaths by suicide could be significantly reduced if supports were provided in communities. We must meet people halfway. I refer to the fantastic individuals across the State who spend an unbelievable amount of time working on this issue. They will deliver volunteer hours if they are provided with the supports they need. Every Deputy could tell stories about dynamic projects in their constituencies. In County Donegal, for example, we have youth mental health projects that have been developed and are led by young people.

The motion before us is a call to action that is necessary because we have had too many unfulfilled promises. We hope the Government can deliver resources in communities to show that Ireland has genuinely moved forward from the dark days of the big house on the hill where we locked away those we were ashamed of and failed to show decency or compassion. If we are to demonstrate that we have learned from the past and moved on, we must invest resources to match the fine words and plans that have been laid out.

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