James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House to discuss this important issue. I acknowledge the fact that this Government has ring-fenced €125 million for mental health funding. Mental health is a private illness with public consequences. It is devastating when people's lives collapse around them. In addition, mental illness does not discriminate and can affect anybody at any time; indeed, it can tear families apart.

Given that I have a relatively short speaking time slot, I would like to focus my comments on some of the outstanding work on mental health that goes on in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath. Some months ago, I met with two local students, Thomas Ganley from Longford and Niamh Tubridy from County Westmeath. Their goal is to promote positive mental health through the "Let's Go Mental" campaign.

Thomas and Niamh are passionate about this project. The campaign is a series of 31 regional events for teenagers to promote positive mental health. One of these regional events took place in Longford town and it focused on the small, positive things we can do every day which make a big difference to how we feel. It was a great event which was very well run. All credit should go to Thomas, Niamh and the rest of the event's organisers.

We already have an excellent Good2Talk centre in Mullingar. The centre supports positive mental health by providing effective and accessible counselling services. I have been informed by the Minister that negotiations are ongoing with a view to opening a Good2Talk centre in Longford. I would urge the Minister to ensure that these negotiations reach a favourable conclusion as soon as possible.

Between 2014 and 2015, nine applied suicide intervention skills training workshops were delivered in Longford and Westmeath to a total of 220 individuals. Meanwhile, 25 SafeTalk programmes were delivered to a total of 375 people. Despite the financial pressures, €21 million has been allocated to Longford and Westmeath in 2015 for mental health services. While this is welcome, we must continue to rebuild and sustain our funding of mental health services, especially in the midlands where rural isolation is a real issue.

I cannot speak in this debate on mental health without mentioning the exceptional work that takes place in St. Christopher's in Longford Town. My mother, Marcella, was a founding member of the service and I have been attending the school's annual general meetings for decades. St. Christopher's runs a great service and provides many programmes to equip service users with personal, social and work-related skills that will enable them to progress to greater levels of independence. In 2014, I ensured the financial stability of the services by lobbying the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the HSE to cover cash-flow issues encountered by St. Christopher's, which started back in 2008, long before the current Government took office. However, the National Council for Special Education recently informed the school of a reduction in two special needs assistant posts. This news is a big worry for staff, pupils and families who are dependent on those services.

One of the aims of St. Christopher's school is to enable children to become as independent as possible. The loss of two staff members will have a detrimental effect on pupils' well-being, education and independence. In addition, pupils' access to the curriculum will be restricted, as the school will not have staff available to enable full participation. I have already raised this serious issue with the Minister, but I want to take this opportunity to put it on the record that we must do all we can to ensure both of these SNAs are reinstated as a matter of urgency.

Mental health promotion remains the most undeveloped area of health promotion in Ireland. The need for positive mental health promotion is universal and relevant to all of us, so we need to ensure it is adequately funded. I thank the Minister of State for attending the House for this important debate. Mental health issues have affected communities around the country, while over the years every parish has been afflicted by suicides. We must therefore strive to ensure that sufficient funding is in place to upgrade mental health services in every single part of the country, but particularly in rural areas where isolation is prevalent.

See this speech in context