Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing us to raise this important issue. I am disappointed that neither the Minister for Health nor the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, who has responsibility for mental health, is present. However, it would make no difference if they were.

County Tipperary does not have one psychiatric long-term or any other type of bed. We have a crisis house and great front-line staff, but there is a chronic situation in Tipperary. There are half a dozen children between 11 and 13 years of age, mostly girls, languishing in beds in the paediatric ward in St. Joseph's Hospital in Clonmel. One has been there for 11 weeks, with others there for ten, seven and eight weeks. Their parents are distraught because they have no services. I ask the Minister of State to do something because this is not good enough. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, told me last week that a worldwide shortage of psychiatrists is delaying the delivery of mental health services. He said recruitment, not funding, is the issue in the delays.

Last week I pointed out to the HSE that it spends €400 million every year on medication for the treatment of mental health but a mere €10 million on psychological and counselling services. That is the problem. We must spend money on counselling and psychological services and take money away from all the management and mismanagement.

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