Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ten years on from A Vision for Change we are still awaiting its full implementation. When we consider that poor mental health costs the State some €3 billion a year, surely the provision of €35 million a year would not be too much to ask. It would help to achieve A Vision for Change and ensure people can get services when they require them and when they are desperate.

Much has been made of the difficulty in recruiting staff, which creates real difficulty on the ground. I recently had need to contact a mental health team in north Donegal to try to get a nurse to call to a person's son, who was badly in need of help and whose family were very worried about him, but there was no nurse available in that team and it could not deal with the issue. In south-west Donegal, because the psychiatrist has retired and has not been replaced, and no locum has been put in place, people presenting with issues cannot get referred on or get treatment. There are situations where psychiatrists are trying to cover a whole county. It is not acceptable that this should be allowed to continue.

It is not acceptable at this stage that it should be allowed to continue. Its impact on people across the State is immeasurable. People are going without treatment and are left without services. For the sake of €35 million a year it is not too much to ask that it be provided for. The funding could be ring-fenced to ensure that A Vision for Change would be implemented. Non-governmental organisations, NGOs and groups such as the family support centres that I know in south-west Donegal are overrun with requests for counselling for children and young people to assist them and they cannot keep up with the demand yet this Government slashes their funding by 38%. They are the bodies filling the gaps left because A Vision for Change is not being implemented and resourced. The NGOs include BeLonG To which piloted a very successful programme called safe and supportive schools to assist young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, LGBT, in schools in Donegal. That programme is being rolled out across the country but it needs to be funded and resourced to achieve what it sets out to do. It can make a difference and building that awareness among children and young people will help them.

We will have another motion next year wondering where the €35 million went. That is the problem and unless the Government addresses that and implements A Vision for Change, we will continue to have motions like this.

See this speech in context