Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I said I would convey the issues raised by Deputy McGuinness to the Minister. The Deputy made critical points about the current situation being unfair to the staff and the patients. It is unacceptable for people to have to sit on chairs. He also mentioned the fundamental question of capital expenditure on the refurbishment of the centre. In Kilkenny, there is significant focus on meaningful involvement of the service users in the management of their illnesses with the development of recovery-focused services. Six actions are being undertaken: the development of involvement centres, which are peer-led support services located in Carlow and Kilkenny; the development of a recovery college that delivers programmes for people who have lived experience in mental health; the delivery of wellness recovery action planning, WRAP, which is a programme to help people to manage their mental health; a class programme that supports service users and their relatives; projects, which focus on recovery from mental ill-health; and service user forums, which facilitate service users to feed back on service delivery and development of service initiatives.

I take the Deputy's point about major problems emerging. It is important that Ministers see what is happening first hand and that they engage with psychiatric nurses. I am very much open to that. It is also important to acknowledge that, in budget 2018, an additional €35 million has been allocated to develop mental health services and that the Minister has also committed an additional €55 million in funding in 2019, delivering a total of €105 million in additional funding for the implementation of A Vision for Change over the three-year period 2017 to 2019. I want to see exactly where the money is going. I take the Deputy's point that if issues are raised in Kilkenny they have to be dealt with in a comprehensive way and I will bring that message back to the Minister.

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