Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The children's referendum was passed on 10 November 2012 and the Government said at the time that this would be a once in a generation opportunity to put things right in terms of supports for children, particularly vulnerable children, and ensuring they had adequate facilities in place. When John Saunders published the Mental Health Commission annual report for 2013 some months ago, he stated that in relation to younger service users, there is still a most unsatisfactory situation whereby children are being admitted to adult units where there were 91 child admissions to such units in 2013.

The difficulty is that families throughout our country are under huge pressure because of unemployment, homelessness, pressures in general society, cyberbullying, drug addiction, and the many other problems they face. The founder of Save our Sons and Daughters has said that children are at a higher risk of suicide and are becoming more vulnerable because there is a serious lack of experts employed, and there is only a handful of adolescent beds in our hospitals. There are only 48 beds available to young children who suffer from mental health issues.

It is a very serious position to be in that in 2014, two years after the children's referendum, adolescents with psychiatric problems who may have self-harmed or attempted suicide are still being admitted to adult units, which is wholly inappropriate. In view of the budget next week, will there be a commitment to ensure that we honour the pledge we made solemnly as a people to the children of this country to ensure we have proper funding in place for the most vulnerable children in our communities?

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