Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. I share the frustration of the public at the lack of pace with which a new Government is being formed and the fact that the focus seems to be on Irish Water. Pertinent issues such as mental health are not getting the attention they deserve. While these statements are very positive, they do not have the capacity to direct or force the caretaker Government to change its policy direction. As I listened to the Minister earlier, I would have forgiven anyone for thinking we did not really have an issue with mental health services. As always, he was good at quoting statistics to suggest things had improved. The outgoing Government did not honour its mental health service commitments in any of the five years it spent in office. Some €15 million was taken from the mental health budget in 2014 alone. The Minister has suggested people want to pitch one aspect of the health service against another. I do not think that is true. People want to see implementation of A Vision for Change. They want to see equality throughout the HSE. They want the commitments made by Governments to be honoured. The mental health staffing level is still 35% lower than that recommended in A Vision for Change.

Some 90% of the posts sanctioned in 2015 were not filled by the end of 2015. Only last week we learned that the acting Government diverted €12 million from this area, which, in my opinion, it had no mandate to do. No amount of excuses can justify this. On 7 May next people across this country will participate in Darkness Into Light to fundraise for Pieta House. The Good 2 Talk service in Mullingar, which intervenes where the State is failing many people, also operates on a fund-raising basis.

All Members are visited at their constituency offices by people seeking help, many of whom are drowning in a sea of debt or suffering addiction. It is often the least likely people who need help. I suffer with anxiety. I know what its like to experience one's heart racing so fast it feels like it will burst out of one's chest. I know what it is like to awake in the morning and not want to get out of bed for no other reason than that I do not feel I have the capacity to address the challenges of the day. I know what it is like to have a knot in the pit of one's stomach. It is like being in a tug-o-war with two people pulling at either side and not knowing how to adapt to the situation. I am fortunate because I can afford to pay for professional help to deal with my problem. Earlier, I wondered if I would speak about my problem today in the Dáil. It is important that people speak out about this issue. I acknowledge the work done by Niall Breslin and others in this area. It is important people speak of their true feelings. The feelings I have experienced in the past quite often crept up gradually only to manifest into a bigger problem. Many people are of the view that while it is possible to treat physical ailments there is no treatment for this type of ailment.

It behoves the Minister to justify why €12 million in ring-fenced funding should be diverted from one pot to another. There are people dying because they are not able to access necessary supports. There are community groups who want to support these people. The Mental Health Reform Commission brought forward proposals in regard to how that money could be better spent now and not at some time in the future. I call on the Minister to press the pause button and allow the issue of the diversion of funding from this critical area to be addressed by the next Minister for Health who will, at least, have the authority of this Dáil to do so.

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