Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague on bringing forward this Bill. When a patient is admitted to hospital with mental health problems, he or she is at their most vulnerable, and any Bill that will strengthen their rights has to be welcomed and has to be implemented as quickly as possible. Like Deputy Butler, my county was hit today with the closure of more beds. In a county which has been badly hit in the past number of years by lack of services, it is very hard to take.

I intend to be parochial in what I am going to say. Tipperary has been extremely poorly served as regards mental health services. Two months ago, a delegation met here with the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy McEntee, to try to see if we could get a Jigsaw initiative for our county. No decision has been made as yet on Jigsaw initiatives to be implemented this year. Considering the lack of resources in our county, I implore that Tipperary be favourably looked on for this Jigsaw project.

It is hard to imagine that a county of our size has no psychiatric beds. In the south of the county, patients with mental health problems have to go to Kilkenny and in the north of the county they have to go to Ennis. The difficulty this imposes on families is just not good enough, considering that all these facilities have been taken out of our county. We are told that this country has recovered economically. If that is the case, it is definitely not being shown in the resources allocated to our county.

In my town of Thurles, we have a centre that caters for a catchment area of 34,000 people. The lack of resources and staff in that service is hard to comprehend. Over the past 12 months, there has been no psychiatric counselling available in that mental health centre nor occupational therapists employed. There is no point having a service in name without putting the proper resources into it. We talk a lot about mental health in this House.

Unfortunately, it strikes on every door and hits every neighbourhood and community. Unless we put the proper resources in place, we will not make inroads into the problem. My county has been very badly served in the past number of years, with resources after resources being taken away. We have one of the highest rates of suicide in the country and I implore the Government to look at Tipperary and put some resources in place for mental health issues there, so that we can address this plague which affects modern society.

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