James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A Mental Health Commission, MHC, report published this morning identifies long-term neglect of people with serious and enduring mental illness in the mental health system. It is another in a regular series of highly critical reports from the Mental Health Commission.

I was not surprised by the report. One of the most difficult and common situations I deal with is persons being released from the department of psychiatry without accommodation and without rehabilitation services who end up in a revolving door system where inevitably, a number of months later, they are back in the department of psychiatry - a type of patch them up and show-them-the-front-door approach.

We are in year 13 of a ten-year mental health strategy and yet barely over 50% of the recommended staff are in place and less than 10% for those with intellectual disabilities, with none in some regions.

Fianna Fáil, through the confidence and supply agreement, secured an additional €105 million for mental health. In budget 2019, €55 million was secured. It was secured previously in 2018. The Department of Health knew that funding was coming. The Minister signed a document to that effect. Some €25 million of that expenditure seems to have been withheld so far this year. This is unconscionable. What is the reason for this funding being unspent and where is the ministerial oversight?

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