Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a ghabháil leis an Aire agus le Deputy Helen McEntee and Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, atá anois mar Airí Stáit. Guím gach rath orthu le sin. I wish them every success in their positions and I congratulate them on their recent appointments.

When the people of this country reach out for help, it is critical that they are able to find good quality services and supports. We are more than a decade on from A Vision for Change, which was commissioned by the then Minister for Health in response to a widespread need for improved mental health services. It identified the critical structural, human and financial resources required. Sadly, the early momentum and progress that was achieved at that stage by A Vision for Change was not maintained. Things have slipped back over recent years. That happened during a time of increased demand for mental health supports. The consequences of increased demand alongside the slip back led to much larger increases in waiting lists for children and adolescents and people seeking emergency treatment.

For example, the figures in Cork are astounding. According to HSE figures, there were 537 children waiting to be seen by child and adolescent community mental health services at the end of last year. Alarmingly, 115 of those children and young people had been waiting for more than 12 months. It is very easy to dehumanise it but behind all of those figures there are real people suffering in isolation who are very distressed and very distraught individuals. In many cases, the families around them are suffering the same way.

I wish to acknowledge the huge community initiatives such as the Darkness Into Light movement and Cycle Against Suicide. These are predominantly driven by younger people who are bringing people together, increasing awareness, fundraising, talking about the issue, raising the profile and making people realise that it is okay to feel the way that they do.

Unfortunately, we are still 3,000 staff short of what was recommended in A Vision for Change. That needs to be dealt with to ease pressure and to tackle the waiting lists. What is needed is an enhanced focus and resources for mental health services. Mental health should be taken as seriously as physical health in terms of the development of State resources. We need to see the establishment of a national mental health authority to ensure that there is a single organisation tasked with the co-ordination of mental health services. We need a full review of what is still left to be achieved in the strategy and a revamp of the plan to get it back on track. We also need the reinstatement of an implementation review group which will issue regular reports on the progress being made to deliver the strategy. The people and the resources need to be put in place and not siphoned off to other areas as we unfortunately saw a number of weeks back.

The challenge is not isolated to the health services. Previous speakers identified the education system where we saw the removal of the ex-quota guidance counsellor. Unfortunately, that had a knock on effect in schools around the country. Guidance counsellors were able to offer many services aside from talking to people, accessing services and so on. It was done in a way that if a student who was distressed wanted to go and use the service, nobody really knew whether he or she was going in to inquire about the CAO, career guidance or some other distressing issue he or she had. That was a big loss in schools. If schools had been able to maintain the service, the focus would have been shifted in the service's restricted time and CAO and career guidance would have trumped guidance counselling. This service was lost at a time when young vulnerable people were at a particularly tough time in their lives. We need to see the reinstatement of that guidance counselling service in schools to be able to support people at that critical time. I know it was a significant part of my party's discussions during Government formation earlier this year. It is something that is key and we need to see it delivered on.

The provision of mental health services must be a priority for Government. Far too many people have been suffering from mental health issues in isolation and are not receiving the help and support they need from the State at the right time.

See this speech in context