Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

What the Deputy fails to understand is that we are changing a service. We do not necessarily want the same people who have been working in the service for a long number of years, even though they have done an incredible job. The bulk are nurses who have since upskilled and are doing a different type of job. They would agree with this. I speak with them regularly. They have told me that the expertise they have gained as a result of being allowed to do different tasks is working.

They also tell me it is a better service, in which they prefer working to what had been there previously. Clearly, there will be people who will disagree and who do not wish to change. I can understand this and am not certain that any of us jumps up and down for joy when change is mentioned. However, the Government is determined to change how mental health services are delivered in Ireland. No matter what pressures may come on me, I am determined that the Government will proceed along these lines and on the lines as laid out for us in A Vision for Change.

See this speech in context