Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe that has already been agreed through the emergency department agreement negotiated with my predecessor in 2014. I have discussed this with the INMO and have made it very clear to it and the HSE that this needs to be addressed. When the INMO pointed out to me areas where it did not believe this to be the case, I asked the HSE to take action. I want staff in all our hospitals to be safe - we all do - and we will increase security presences where that is appropriate and necessary. The figures I put on the record of the House are the first available figures through the State Claims Agency, which has only been measuring this since 2015. I want to break down some of those figures. In 2016, 965 of the recorded incidents of assaults by patients on staff were in mental health units. This rose to 1,478 in 2017. Overall, we have seen the number of assaults decrease in our health service but we have seen the number of assaults in mental health services increase. They now account for roughly 40% of reported assaults. The HSE does believe that a significant amount of this increase in mental health reporting is due to improved reporting so it involves having the data. Mental health services have a very proactive lead for quality and service user safety. We have put a number of schemes in place to support staff who find themselves in these unacceptable situations.

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