James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that pay is a significant and important factor, but the conditions under which many consultant psychiatrists must work is also causing particular problems. They were taken out of the hospitals and put in the community, and rightly so, under A Vision for Change, but the buildings are not fit for purpose. I have been in many of them and they are often decrepit or lack proper facilities. The psychiatrists tell me that they are spending a great deal of time in these buildings that are not fit for purpose but also performing roles that are not part of their remit such as finding hospital beds, making phone calls, opening letters and so on. That is a waste of time that they should spend with clients. Will the Minister examine the conditions in which many of our mental health services are provided? They are not fit for the psychiatrists, the psychiatric nurses or other allied health professionals or for the patients who have to attend those facilities.

See this speech in context