Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge Deputy Healy's ongoing interest in and commitment to health services in the south east. He has raised overcrowding in the hospital in Clonmel on many occasions, and we are making good progress on that, as well as on the mental health services. The move in mental health over the past couple of decades, in line with A Vision for Change which every party has signed up to, is to move away from the residential and institutional model of providing mental health and psychiatric care towards one that is based in the community. Twenty and 30 years ago huge numbers of people were treated in psychiatric hospitals. Over the intervening years we have tried to do two things - to get rid of psychiatric hospitals and move those people into mainstream health care, because mental health is mainstream health care and should never have been treated as something separate, and to reduce the number of people receiving the mental health services they need in a residential setting and move them to a community setting. Most people who have mental health problems do not need to be in hospital. They need treatment and they can get that in the community and stay in their homes. That has been the direction of travel and, broadly, it has been the correct one.

However, on occasion people need to be admitted so we need a certain number of inpatient hospital beds. I am advised that in the south east there is planning permission for, and construction is beginning on, a crisis house for the region. There is a particular focus on Tipperary when it comes to the distribution of advanced nurse practitioners and assistant psychologists - people working in the community who are qualified and can give people the support they need. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, has visited the area and met with the local representatives. He is giving consideration to the inclusion of inpatient beds in new builds that are proposed for the south east.

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