Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is a decent man too. I respect his right to raise in the House any issues he feels strongly about. When the predecessor to this Government was elected, we were blocked out of all the international markets, bond yields were at 15%, the unemployment rate was 15.2%, we were haemorrhaging jobs by the ten thousands, and there was despair and disillusionment all over the place. Now, because of the sacrifice of the people, that has changed considerably. We are now able to borrow money for the State at less than 1%. The unemployment rate is down to 6.3% or 6.4% and is heading in the right direction. More than 225,000 jobs have been created since the Minister, Deputy Bruton, introduced the first Action Plan for Jobs.

The Deputy referred to the recruitment of nurses. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has addressed this on a number of occasions. There are now incentives for nurses. Permanent contracts are offered to all new nurses coming out of highly specialised training here in Ireland. There are opportunities for nurses to return home to work in the hospital service here in Ireland. Not everybody will do that. Young people in all walks of life tend to move to other countries for experience in travel and to develop their skills.

The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, has been working very hard on the issue of mental health. Yesterday she went to the Linn Dara facility where only half of the 22 beds are occupied. During her visit she was given assurances that any patients discharged from the Linn Dara facility are children who are discharged for clinical reasons only. The HSE confirmed to the Minister of State that no young person will be discharged unless deemed clinically appropriate by their mental health team. Nobody is being discharged to allow a bed to be closed.

The HSE has also assured the Minister of State that for patients who are discharged for clinical reasons, dedicated follow-on support is available from the community-based child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. They will continue to be provided as required on a routine basis. The Health Service Executive will also increase the capacity of the child and adolescent mental health day services during the summer to enhance the level of support available for those children and their families.

The core issue facing the Linn Dara facility relates specifically to staff recruitment difficulties for mental health professionals, which unfortunately, as the Deputy has pointed out, reflects wider health system recruitment and retention issues. I assure the Deputy that the problem facing the Linn Dara facility does not relate to funding availability but to staffing availability. Intensive efforts are under way to increase staffing to allow more beds to be reallocated. The HSE is actively engaged in a recruitment process, with a number of staff due to support the service in the near future. I hope that will improve things.

An allocation of €15.5 billion is now going into the health services. All nurses coming out of Irish training institutions are offered permanent contracts giving them the opportunity to work at home here in our own hospitals.

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