Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Today is the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. On the "Morning Ireland" programme today, the Ombudsman for Children said the Government will be called to the UN to account for the lack of services for children. Linn Dara is a facility for adolescents with mental health issues. Between June and August last, six young people committed suicide in the area between Cherry Orchard and Ballyfermot where Linn Dara is located. Tragically and shockingly, most of them were young women. I am not saying all of them would have gone automatically to Linn Dara. One has to be suicidal to get into that facility. However, there are needs for mental health treatment which become apparent much earlier that are not caught by the system.

The Government is being called to the UN so it can be told that it is failing young people and children. That is happening. Many issues affecting young people are not being caught early enough and the services are not available 24-7 so they can access them. It is a tragic situation, and it will get worse. The next generation is being reared through the austerity years and has seen special needs education at schools cut for eight or ten years. There are also those who are living in homeless accommodation, not to mention those who are coming out of direct provision and from homeless services back into so-called normal living. How will their mental health be dealt with in a system that is creaking and already failing? The consequences are not just tragic, but criminal. The UN will have to point this out to the Government when the Government is called before it. Telling me that there are five nurses out of 11 does not tick the boxes for the reopening of all the beds required in Linn Dara. It requires 11 nurses, not five.

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