Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The crisis in the mental health system appears to be the perennial problem that simply will not go away. It appears to be the sick man of the health service that does not seem to get better. One of the best demonstrations I attended recently was the protest outside this building last spring. The protest, which was organised by the Union of Students in Ireland and Mental Health Reform, highlighted the detrimental cuts to the mental health service and what impact it was having on citizens. At the protests I listened to a profound speech about a contributor's own daily struggle with mental health and the problems of accessing mental health services when that person needed them most. At the same time, there were stories of hope and human spirit and of fighting against adversity in times of desperation.

Mental health difficulties affect more than half a million people in Ireland. Ireland has the highest suicide rate in Europe among teenage girls and the second highest rate among boys. When people do gain access to mental health services, the lack of funding for psychological and social therapies has led to an over-reliance on the use of medication. The use of medication and coercion in mental health should be minimised due to the potential adverse effects of excessive use. Urgent situations that require a 24-7 urgent response require both a 24-7 community mental health team on call and access to an appropriate emergency department to ensure physical assessment and mental care is assessed in a mental health emergency as it would be in any other health emergency.

A Vision for Change, Ireland's national mental health policy, was introduced in 2006 to detail the number of staff required to provide basic mental health services. When taking into account the increase in population, the required number of full-time posts to implement fully the A Vision for Change policy is now 12,240. However, staffing in mental health services has been cut by 10% during the years of austerity and as of April 2016, only 9,533 mental health whole-time equivalents were employed, which is a gap of 2,687 in the number of staff required. This means that for adult services, staff levels are barely over three quarters of what is recommended by the Department of Health but for children, the position is even worse with only half the staff numbers required in place. The Department of Health's own estimate of the cost of filling the staffing gap is €177 million per annum. Ireland only spends 5% of its health budget on mental health services and it would require more than €800 million to bridge that gap.

People Before Profit welcomes this motion tabled by Sinn Féin. I also welcome what has been a good debate. As a budget will be announced next week, now is the time to right the wrongs of historical underfunding of the mental health service and give citizens a chance to get well again. When carrying out research for this debate, I looked at a PDF copy of A Vision for Change and I wish to read out what I came across on the very first page, because they are the most profound words.

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