Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and the debate on it. I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, on his elevation. I worked with the Minister of State on the Committee on Children and Youth Affairs. I look forward to working with him. I acknowledge Deputy Browne for bringing this forward. When he contacted me about it a number of months ago, I believed it was a no-brainer. I sit on the cross-party mental health group. We have all tried to work apolitically on this issue. There is a spirit of that within the group. I understand politics will creep in from time to time. We are politicians who belong to political parties so we have to call it how it is. I will be mindful of my comments and sensitive in my speech for those in the Gallery and those watching proceedings. I thank Mental Health Reform for its guidance and help over the past year since I have been on the cross-party group. I thank Deputies for and acknowledge their comments regarding the former Deputy, Dan Neville. He would not want extra credit for this. He just saw it as part of doing his job as an elected Member.

Today is a watershed in driving this debate. I welcome that we will have a joint Oireachtas committee on this. It will be something with a bit of teeth so we can start getting stuck in, obtain some quick wins and send a message to the electorate that we are trying to tackle this as best we can. It is a very complex area. The biggest challenge is that it is dynamic. The issues that put pressure on people today were not issues ten or 15 years ago. Social media is an example. It can be very positive but there is also a negative side to it. There are also cultural changes. Reference has been made to younger people. When I speak to teenagers, I take heart from their attitude and perception of mental health. Their openness to it is very different from generations ahead of them. We have to take heart from that. We have to take that seed and allow it to germinate. As part of the committee's work, we have to start listening more to younger groups - such as Macra na Feirme and Foróige - and the ideas they put forward. Younger people come at this matter from a completely different perspective than we tend to do. I will speak for how my generation is approaching it. We have come from a time when it was brushed under the carpet to a point whereby we now speak openly about it. It is all part of eradicating stigma. We have to keep concentrating on eradicating stigma. There has been much work done on this issue in recent years but it is still prevalent. We need to gather intelligence on where it is most prevalent. Is it a generational, cultural or socioeconomic thing? We need to get that intelligence and data to be able to formulate policies to tackle it.

The other matter we need to address - I have been doing a lot of work on this - relates to co-morbidity and dual diagnoses. It is an area we need to tackle. There is growth in that area. There is a lack of understanding on joined-up thinking on it. There is a "No Wrong Door" policy in respect of dual diagnosis in north Tipperary and Limerick. There are some working documents on that. There is a multidisciplinary team from both sides because what happens is the patient falls between two stools when it comes to dual diagnosis. Is it the substance or is it a mental health problem? That has been a challenge all along. There is a document on the policy and there is also a working group. If we put the resources in, we can use that policy and find the positives and start to roll it out. It is a huge challenge.

To return to the issue of young people, there has been a growth in drug culture in Ireland that was not there before, particularly in the context of synthetic drugs. We need to drive education in that area. I have looked at the drugs strategy. We need to stop shying away from that area and look at educating young people on what is happening on the street and the challenges they will face. Education on mental health, cultural change and the use of drugs is key. We need to tackle this issue head-on.

I welcome that there has been a drop of nearly 20% in the suicide rate over the past six years. We still need to get the figures relating to why that is happening. Are preventative methods responsible? Is it just that there is intervention taking place at the final point? Limerick Suicide Watch, which has just received charitable status, does a huge amount of work in Limerick. Intervention is happening there at crisis point. Is the drop in the suicide rate due to intervention at crisis point or is it a result of preventative measures? We need the intelligence on that.

I welcome the work Jigsaw is doing in Limerick.

The cross-party committee worked extremely well.

I want to see that work continue. I want to send a message from the Dáil to our younger people. As our younger people do not vote, other Members and I probably do not engage with them as much and they do not see that engagement as much. Those younger people, particularly teenagers, from their perspective have different ideas from mine because I come from a different generation and background. That really needs to be tapped into. They have ideas on the use of other methodologies and treatments, such as the creative arts and sports, and moving away from the clinical approach. While we need both, we need a philosophical debate on the creative arts and what they can do.

Deputy Eugene Murphy mentioned the art of conversation and that people do not talk. What is more, the sense of community has broken down. Sporting organisations and artistic organisations can bring that sense of community back. Our focus should not be geographical because we move around much more, but should be on interest areas. This is probably more of a philosophical debate that we should have in the committee as well, but we need to start sending those messages out there because they are messages of hope.

See this speech in context