Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Most of the reply from the Minister of State refers to patching up deficiencies in services, particularly in west Clare. The answer he has given offers only stop-gap solutions. When speaking about recruitment and retention last week, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Jim Daly, indicated that, in the context of the challenges that are arising, there should be telepsychiatry in the future. In other words, psychiatric services will be delivered to those who need them from a remote site. This is how he intends to deal with the problem. We all know that one-to-one consultation and continuity of care are so important for people with mental health issues.

The Minster of State made no mention of the fact that west Clare has not had a psychologist in place for the past six years. This is a huge deficiency in terms of service. The social services in the area are also deficient; we are now down to a half-time equivalent supply. Almost half of the budget increase in the mental health sector this year has been used to employ agency staff. It would appear that the main focus on dealing with the recruitment and retention issue is to employ agency staff. Failing that, the new solution seems to be telemedicine and remote treatment in respect of mental health issues. This is totally unacceptable.

The Minister of State mentioned that 2,000 jobs have been approved in the area of mental health services. However, many of those jobs have not been filled and remain vacant. Recruitment and retention are major issues. The problem is that the pay and conditions and the infrastructure are not satisfactory, and there is no support from management. The morale of the service is so low that it is almost impossible to recruit people. Many of our nursing graduates are emigrating en masse once they receive their qualifications. These issues must be addressed.

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