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

I will respond on the general point, as it is not appropriate to go into the details of this young man's case. Conditions such as autism, Asperger's syndrome, intellectual disability, acquired brain injury and dementia are not preventatives of poor mental health. Sometimes, a person who has autism or Asperger's syndrome can become acutely unwell mentally. It does not always sit side by side, but it happens. That is the reason we must be very careful to be clear about how we deal with people. Of course, if the only issue is autism, the person should not be in an acute unit. However, we do not know that. It could well be the case that the person has difficulties with their mental health as well.

That is the reason that this year, with the €35 million we have secured in the budget, we will develop a dual diagnosis service, which we have not had previously and do not have at present. We are in the process of developing it. Until now, if a person had a difficulty with his or her mental health and also had a chronic alcohol problem, for example, the people in mental health services could quite correctly say that the person could only come to those services when he or she was dry, while the people who dealing with the addiction could equally say it was a mental health problem. The dual diagnosis element is something we must develop. It could very well be the issue in this case. I am not certain, but it is the case in some instances that people who have an overarching condition could have a mental health problem as well. I believe the dual diagnosis clinical pathway should be able to deal with that.

See this speech in context