Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Healy said, I was also at the public meeting in Clonmel on Thursday night, where the stories told by mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters were heart-rending, to say the least. They feel completely let down by the system. We have no psychiatric beds in our county. Even for people who do get access to a service, whether in Kilkenny or Ennis, it is completely inadequate to cater to their demands. The other point, which was made extremely forcibly by relatives of people suffering from mental health issues, was that when they are released from psychiatric care, the backup services are not there. The mental health clinics that are available are completely under-resourced. We have a complete lack of mental health resources in County Tipperary. We have no beds and we have completely under-resourced mental health clinics in the county. This situation is intolerable and must be addressed. The public anger was palpable in Clonmel last Thursday night. We need a psychiatric unit both in Clonmel and in Nenagh for north Tipperary, and it is essential that this commitment be given immediately. We also need extra resources put into counselling and other services in the mental health clinics in the county.

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