Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Browne for bringing this motion before the House. It is a very worthwhile debate to have. I commend Senator Joan Freeman on her chairmanship of the Committee on the Future of Mental Healthcare and her staff. I have been on the committee since January and it has been an education to say the least. I knew there was a crisis but I did not realise its extent and profundity. It is important not to bad-mouth the health service in which there are some fantastic people at work, but the reality is that there is a crisis. Anyone on the committee will echo what I have to say in this regard. The crisis relates mainly to the retention and recruitment of staff, pay and conditions, waiting times for early intervention, in particular around CAMHS, understaffing and lack of resources. These are endemic problems in our health services.

Deputy Neville made a very important point. Someday, we will have an ideological debate on this issue. I agree that there is a great deal to be said about quality of life and alienation in society. As a socialist, I believe that many issues in relation to mental health are attributable to the system under which we live. It is a very competitive and individualistic system rather than a collective one. Collective joy sometimes brings the best out of people. We are social animals. Deputy Neville and I might have that ideological debate over a cup of tea sometime.

I turn to the serious issues around waiting times and pay and conditions. The reality is stark. In 1984, we were in a recession in Ireland but 14% of the health budget was spent on mental health services. In 2004, that went down to 7.3% while in 2015 it went down to 6%. I presume it has increased by 0.5% in 2018 but that is nowhere near the 8.6% stipulated in A Vision for Change or the European level of approximately 12%. There is a disparity of 6% there and people want to engage and seek those services. That is the crux of the problem. When there is a lack of access to mental health services and people must wait to see a psychologist or for speech and language therapy and more serious services, there are deaths. That is the reality. People have been let down by the system and the Government, which is unacceptable. There are people who should be alive today but the system failed them. If more staff and resources are put in place and people benefit from early intervention, common sense suggests that it gives them a chance. It will not save everyone, but it can surely save some.

I do not know if other Members saw the recent episode of the RTÉ documentary series "The Big Picture". It was on CAMHS and the lack of intervention for young people and it was heartbreaking. It should be a flag for all of us here. I touched last week on the RTÉ news item on patients in prison who cannot access the Central Mental Hospital due to a bed shortage. The director of the hospital has said this is completely unacceptable in Ireland in 2018 and I agree.

Finally, there were some very good contributions by organisations such as the Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA, the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, Pavee Point, BeLonG To, the Migrant Rights Centre and many mental health service organisations. They have been educational and important. However, the main issue is that this document should not be left to gather dust somewhere. I am sure there are thousands of documents that look and feel great but never see the light of day. The recommendations have to be put into practice, and only the Government can do that. They are the people who can implement this. It probably will not be implemented in its entirety but surely some of the recommendations Members have mentioned must be implemented. Otherwise, we will be talking about this issue constantly, and people will die. People will be let down by the system and they will die.

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