Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Browne and others on bringing the motion forward this evening. It is 13 years since the publication of A Vision For Change. Unfortunately, I put it to the two Ministers of State present, Deputies Catherine Byrne and Jim Daly, that nothing much has actually changed. There are still too many children being admitted to adult wards and our waiting lists are still far too long.

In my constituency office in Cork South-West, I recently met the parents of a young man who are at their wits' end and are in an extremely distressed state. Their son should be enjoying college life, life in general, and looking forward to his future. Instead he literally has given up and has thrown in the towel. He was admitted to Cork University Hospital for one week and while this helped him enormously - I commend the staff there - unfortunately there was no follow-up and no plan made for his future. The family are now back to square one with nowhere or no one to turn to.

I know of another patient who presented at a hospital in the last week having attempted to take his own life. The family, understandably, are distraught. Situations such as this could have been avoided if community staff and ward staff were not under so much pressure. It is even more alarming that the two cases brought to my attention in the past two weeks are both young people with families.

What of the welfare and mental health of staff members? From my conversations with these staff members, I am aware that morale is at an all-time low. They undoubtedly are bringing their work home with them and there is no way they could detach themselves from such a predicament. This is very cruel. The matter is not going to go away and it cannot be brushed under the carpet. It needs to be addressed immediately.

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