Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Maintaining and creating good mental health is one of the biggest challenges facing individuals, communities and Government in the State. Often, it feels as though the level of suicide, self-directed injury and depression are at epidemic levels and we as Deputies are powerless in the face of it.

Some 0.33 million persons in the south of Ireland suffer from depression. There is not a home in this country untouched by depression at some level, whether through family and friends, and it leads to 10,000 hospitalisations in the State. Some 10% of adolescents experience some level of depression.

According to the Mental Health Commission, since 2007 staffing in mental health services has been reduced by the implementation of recruitment embargoes and employment moratoriums. The medium and long-term effect of such policies is to endanger the delivery of confident and responsive community-based services as envisaged in A Vision for Change.

On a number of occasions, I have stood in this Chamber and discussed the emerging two-tier society in which we live. We live in a fractured Ireland. Our country is split in many ways: politically, North-South; economically, east-west; and, increasingly, in the uneven rural-ruban distribution of key health services, including mental health In Roscommon and Galway, an expert panel found that services were being run to outdated 30-year-old guidelines. It concluded that services in the west were still operating to 1884 guidelines.

A damning report out recently in Meath stated that services for young people in the county receive 90% less funding than the national average. According to voluntary organisations that work in the county, Meath children and their parents wait longer for services than their counterparts in other counties and in some cases, have no access to services at all. The report, Working For Children, commissioned by the Meath Children's Services Committee, found that the national average funding for child services was €22.31 per child, but in Meath the corresponding figure was €2.89 per child or just under 13% of the national average.

Recently, nine doctors wrote to the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health to express their serious concerns about local services in light of nine fatalities in the Carlow-Kilkenny and south Tipperary area. There are also significant problems in the State with the treatment of certain demographic cohorts. The level of Irish youth suicide is the fourth highest is the European Union and large numbers of children are continually being placed in adult psychiatric units, with children as young as ten being placed in wards with adults aged 30 and upwards because of the lack of out-of-hours emergency services.

This week, approximately ten persons will commit suicide. Eight of these will be men. Male suicides are much more prolific in rural areas, with those working in the area of construction making up 41% of male suicides and those working in agricultural services accounting for 13%. This level of outcome skewed on a gender basis is outrageous and needs to be tackled.

There is a broad range of complex contributing factors that may increase a person's risk of developing mental health problems. Many of these are not in the ability of any government to resolve. However, the Government, with good policy decisions and funds, can ameliorate indirectly other areas of risk, such as exposure to toxins, drugs or alcohol during pregnancy, financial problems, cultural issues, use of illegal drugs and neglect of children. Directly, the Government can make a radical difference through the proper funding and staffing of diagnosis and treatment services.

There are few good news items in this, but statistics tell us that of those with mental health issues who find treatment and diagnosis, 80% will benefit from this treatment. There is a significant lack of after-care facilities in many of the areas worst hit despite the importance of after-care services in dealing with this issue as those who have tried to commit suicide often attempt to do so again. It is only such after-care services that can help with that.

I would appeal to the Government to support the motion and do all within its power to resolve this issue.

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