Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing with Deputies Michael Collins and Danny Healy-Rae.

I am happy to make some brief comments on this Bill. Allow me, ar an chéad dul síos, to salute Deputy Browne for his commitment to the issue of mental health and the time and effort he and his staff have put into drafting this Bill.

There is absolutely no parity between how physical and mental health are treated in this country. This Bill seeks to amend that. Indeed, Deputy Browne described it in the memorandum for the Bill, as follows:

The neglect of Mental Health is a deep seated cultural issue at policy, institutional, organisational and individual levels. This Bill aims to offer hope and provide a catalyst for better Mental Health care by ensuring that vulnerable persons with mental illness are cared for effectively and equally.

We also saw in the Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Healthcare's second interim report, the launch of which I was privileged to attend in the AV room last week, that "[t]he lack of cohesion between primary care and mental health services often means that the most marginalised people are the most adversely affected in terms of accessing mental health services." That is telling. This is a very good report and I salute the committee, chaired by Senator Freeman.

The interim report goes on to state that the HSE, at a meeting on 30 November 2017, confirmed to the joint committee that only 60% of the 114 community mental health teams in Ireland have a seven days a week service. It is appalling. What about the places that do not have it? Even the ones that have a seven days a week service, it is scant at times. Like other Deputies, I salute those working on the front line. The vast majority of psychiatrists and everybody else do a wonderful job. The report indicates that “[i]f these teams are really to be the bulwark of the service they were envisioned to be in A Vision for Change, Ireland should be working towards a situation where supports are available seven days a week and 24 hours a day...". They should at least have that.

Tragically, this is clear in my own constituency where we have children and young adults languishing in paediatric wards for months without any access to appropriate levels of care. At present, there are two languishing there. One, a girl of 14, is waiting 11 weeks and she is from County Waterford, Deputy Butler's constituency, but my parish. Another girl is six and a half. Imagine that girl is in her 11th week. It will be 12 weeks come the weekend. This is scandalous. I raised the matter last week in a Topical Issue debate and instead of receiving clarity about what will be done, I received a dry official reply about how wonderful the funding levels are. There is nothing more insulting than that when we all know of the horror and the trauma. It was pathetic. In the meantime, the children suffer and their parents are driven to their wits end.

That clearly demonstrates the need for a Bill of this type and I compliment Deputy Browne on bringing it forward. The situation is just not good enough. One of these girls who is taking up a bed in the children's ward is 14 years of age and is almost an adult. However, there are eight beds lying idle in Éist Linn in Cork because of bad management, mismanagement and stubbornness by the management. I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, to try to make some effort.

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