Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will start by extending a welcome to the campaigners in the Public Gallery and indicating that we will be voting for the motion.

On 7 May this year, 120,000 people gathered at various locations throughout the State at 4.15 in the morning. They walked and ran five kilometres, crossing the finishing lines of the Darkness Into Light events as the sun came up, raising money for the suicide prevention charity, Pieta House. What is interestingly is that in 2009, at the first Darkness Into Light event in the Phoenix Park, approximately 200 people showed up. That is an indication of the growing awareness of this issue in society. The parties of the political establishment have completely lagged behind in appreciating that and in matching that with the funds that are needed.

This week, the world famous musician, Bruce Springsteen, published his autobiography, Born to Run. One of the striking features of the autobiography is the searingly honest and frank description he gives of his battles with depression. On page 528 he puts it very well:

Depression will steal your life. It will take it right out from underneath you by the things you do.

He talks about the effect on him that effective treatment has had, "[It] gave me my life back, which was slipping away between my fingers due to the fact that I couldn't control my anxieties and my neuroses." Bruce Springsteen is a working class hero, but he is a wealthy man now. He has the money to access whatever services he needs. Many people do not have that money, and many in this country do not have access to those services. Successive Governments have let down those people and their families. To illustrate that, current spending on mental health services in the State is €145 million less than it was at the start of the crisis, despite that there are 400,000 more people in the State now. As the motion puts starkly, there is no State-wide 24-7 crisis intervention for adult mental health services.

In his contribution, the Fianna Fáil Deputy, James Browne, said that the programme for Government means the full implementation of A Vision for Change and warned that little things bring down Governments. I would like someone from Fianna Fáil to clarify those points, now or after the debate. What exactly is it saying? Is it saying that if in next week's budget A Vision for Change is not fully implemented and the funds put aside to do that, it will bring down the Government? Is it putting a timescale on that? Words are cheap, and we have seen services cut by Deputy Browne's party, so I am looking for clarification on what exactly is being said.

On 28 April this year, a protest on mental health funding took place outside the Dáil which 500 people attended. It was a small number in comparison with the Darkness Into Light event, but we must remember that Darkness Into Light started with just 200 people seven years ago. What if the 500 who were outside the Dáil on 28 April became hundreds of thousands? What if the 120,000 who participated in Darkness Into Light this year were out on the streets criticising Government and the political establishment and demanding funding for mental health services? If the Minister of State thinks that could not happen, she is being complacent. We need real increases in mental health spending. We need to start with the reversal of all the cuts and the provision of the moneys that were promised over many years for A Vision for Change, and it needs to start in next week's budget.

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