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

I thank Deputies O'Loughlin, O'Callaghan and Browne for bringing this important Bill to the House. This is in keeping with the recent trend of raising awareness in the House of mental health issues and their equal place alongside physical health issues. Just as everyone will experience varying levels of physical health in the course of life, we all struggle daily to maintain and preserve our good mental health. That struggle is all the more difficult when it is done in silence. We know this when it comes to physical health all too well. For decades, public health measures have promoted the idea that looking after one's health is something on which people should take the initiative by discussing issues with friends, family and, above all, professionals to ensure appropriate action is taken when necessary. Awareness of our personal physical health on a daily basis has never been better. This is the model we must adopt for mental health and much effort has been made in this regard.

We have had successful and positive public health campaigns on mental health issues. Campaigns promoted reaching out, talking to someone one trusts and checking up on friends and family. We have heard the slogan, "It is okay not to be okay", but is that the case? While the meaning of that statement is good and right and based on ideals we must pursue, the truth is our laws do not reflect this approach. As far as an employer is concerned, the law says it is not okay not to be okay but it is okay to discriminate against those with mental health issues. This in turn tells people who may need help to stay quiet because it is not okay and they may be worse off if they take action. By making it a violation of employment equality legislation to discriminate against people on the basis of their mental health status, we affirm the anti-stigma slogan. We say not only that it is okay not to be okay, but it is okay and right to speak up and seek help.

This House has rightly spoken out against discrimination on grounds of physical impairment. I do not see any difference with this measure, which does more than close a gap in legislation, as some may hope. It addresses a real need because this kind of discrimination is happening in private and public employment. It is happening to people who have sought help and those who have not sought help. It is even happening to people who do not need help but about whom suspicions have arisen regarding their mental health as a result of a climate of stigma which persists, even if it has diminished. I have spoken to many people with stories of this kind of discrimination, which has created fear, damaged their health and may result in them seeking care. This is unacceptable and must be made a thing of the past. Who knows how many others stayed silent, hurting themselves and not seeking help for fear of being stigmatised or discriminated against. Work, after all, is an important part of who we are in society and central to our lives. The fear of losing one's job for economic reasons can cripple a person physically and psychologically and goes on and on. Surely this fear will be compounded terribly for a person who suffers in silence.

To follow up on the earlier debate on child and mental health services, CAMHS, while this Bill is welcome, simply banning discrimination is not enough when our mental health services are in such disarray. Psychiatric nurses, the backbone of our services, are engaged in industrial action by refusing to do overtime. They do this not to hold the State to ransom as some right-wing commentators might say but to fight for a better service and decent treatment which go hand in hand. We cannot have good mental healthcare and bad conditions for workers in mental health services. We must listen to nurses and work and bargain with them because no one wants a better service than they do, and I defy anyone to contradict that.

I am glad Fianna Fáil has introduced this Bill, which I welcome. I also welcome the positive comments made by Fianna Fáil Deputies on the industrial action taken by nurses. However, I ask them to put their money where their mouth is because nurses tell me that Fianna Fáil is talking out of both sides of its mouth. It can run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. A party which backs up a Government that threatens nurses and which votes for a budget that perpetuates the problem is trying to do just that. I am hearing from nurses that they are not buying it. I thank the Fianna Fáil Deputies who put forward the Bill and if I have offended them, I recommend that they direct that feeling of offence at the leadership of their party because their genuine work on this issue is being very much undermined.

I urge the House to support the Bill. I look forward to discussing it further and exploring possible improvements to strengthen the text on later Stages.

See this speech in context