Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In a report in today's Irish Independent, the journalist, Katherine Donnelly, provides a detailed and disturbing analysis of a new study by Dr. Rosaleen McElvaney of the school of nursing and human sciences at Dublin City University. The analysis was funded by St. Patrick's mental health services. Dr. McElvaney found that primary schools are engaging with children, some as young as four years of age, who are experiencing serious mental health difficulties, including self-harming and suicidal thoughts. The study notes that one quarter of all school principals believe they are ill-equipped to respond to the complexity of these children's needs. It is estimated that one third of schools are providing on-site counselling on an ad hocbasis. This demonstrates the way in which the absolute chaos in our mental health services is interacting with the crisis facing teaching principals around release times. This is generating a perfect storm, which is having a debilitating impact across the educational and mental health spectrum.

In the past week alone, almost a dozen schools in County Tipperary contacted me to raise the issue of exhaustion and the excessive workload affecting teaching principals as they try to manage the unmanageable administrative burdens being placed on them. The principals of the Deanery school in Cashel, Mount Bruis national school, Upper Newtown national school, St. Michael's national school, the Christian Brothers school in Tipperary town and the national schools in Tankardstown, Lisronagh, Lattin and Ballydrehid, as well as many other schools from outside my constituency, all expressed the view that the education system is under threat. They are burnt out and disillusioned and they argue that fantastic educational leaders are being lost every month due to ill health and stress.

As I stated, all of this is creating serious, systemic problems for children and a mental health crisis. Teaching principals are being mentally worn down in their search for adequate and appropriate child services. The position is the same at all levels of education, including in secondary schools. This morning, I and many other Deputies met student union representatives who also raised major issues. For instance, some students have to wait a full term to see a counsellor. The service is wholly inadequate when students must wait for eight to ten weeks for an appointment.

Is it any wonder this is happening when there is not a single residential child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, bed or adult psychiatric bed in Tipperary, a county with a population of 160,000? Recently, when I raised with the Taoiseach the resignation of an eminent psychiatrist, Dr. John Hillery, he dismissed it as a pre-election stunt on Dr. Hillery's part. I found that disgraceful. Unfortunately for the Taoiseach, the same cannot be said about Dr. Rosaleen McElvaney, the author of the study to which I referred. Will he accept there is a deep and prolonged crisis in mental health that is actively threatening the stability of the primary education system? Will he give a commitment to engage urgently with teaching principals to address their concerns for the sake of all the pupils, staff and families involved?

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