Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue today. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for scheduling this discussion and the Minister of State for his input. It is 2019 and I had hoped to be coming in here in a more optimistic frame of mind but I am still disappointed. In his opening remarks the Minister of State referred to investment, recruitment, a lack of funding and so on. I would like to provide a synopsis of the current situation. We still have growing waiting lists for initial and follow-up assessments and we still have a shortage of staff, particularly consultant psychiatrists. We have no transitional services for older teens and young adults and no 24-7 community mental health services. The Minister of State made reference earlier to 76 beds but as of last week, according to a reply to a parliamentary question, we only have 72 beds, of which only 39 are operational. We have gone backwards with regard to beds. In November, 49 out of 74 beds were open which means that we have lost two beds and closed ten since then.

There is a huge difficulty with the implementation of the operating procedures within CAMHS, according to the Jigsaw report commissioned by the Minister of State. The report was very frank and honest but the level of engagement by the service providers with the authors was very disappointing. Perhaps they were over stressed and did not have the time to complete the survey.

An earlier speaker referred to services for children with intellectual disabilities which are actually non-existent. This is so frustrating for everyone. A number of weeks ago, a family was forced to make a young child a ward of court so that the child could be sent to England for help. That is the reality of what is happening in this country. Waiting lists were also referred to earlier. In my own area, there are almost 2,500 waiting for a CAMHS appointment, more than 300 of whom have been waiting for more than 12 months. A full 26% of the total on waiting lists nationally are in CHO 4, covering Cork and Kerry.

I do not want to be negative here. The people who work in the system deserve our respect because they are doing their best. It is understandable that members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association are engaged in industrial action today. Their main concern is not pay but patient safety and a lack of resources. There were 82 young people admitted to adult wards in 2017. In January 2018, there were 623 staff in CAMHS but by January 2019, that figure had dropped by 4% down to 597. Again, we are going backwards.

The Minister of State spoke about funding. While I would not go so far as to describe what he said as disingenuous, it was certainly misleading. He referred to 2018 and an additional €84 million. I have a copy of a presentation given by the HSE in the AV room a number of weeks ago, which the Minister of State attended. In 2018, the figure was €35 million; in 2017, it was €15 million; in 2016, it was €35 million; and in 2014, it was €25 million. The Government is putting information into the public domain suggesting that it has spent additional money and that things are going to get better but that is misleading. The facts speak for themselves in that we are going backwards.

I urge the Minister of State to ensure that the Oireachtas mental health committee is reconvened. We need a vehicle that has the power to hold the HSE and everyone else in the system to account. This is vital if we are to make progress.

The Minister of State spoke previously about the revolving door and said that no child should be turned away. However, there are still major issues with regard to those with a dual diagnosis. Children and young adults are presenting with a combination of problems and are being sent from pillar to post because nobody wants to take responsibility for them. There is no accountability or responsibility in this area.

This is not a personal attack on the Minister of State. I would like to sit down with his advisers to determine where they are getting their information because it is not the same information that we are getting through parliamentary questions and through feedback from the general public.

I have run out of time and will hand over to my colleague, Deputy Mitchell. I look forward to talking to the Minister of State again about the future of mental health care in Ireland.

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