James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Jack Chambers.

Through the confidence and supply agreement, Fianna Fáil secured an additional €105 million for mental health services in the past three years. In the budget announced last year €55 million was secured for mental health services. In the budget announced this year €39 million was announced, but it appears that €26 million of this sum is to pay for pay increases and deal with other existing service level issues. The remaining €13 million is for services at the National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital in Portrane. While the money is welcome, in effect, this means that there is no funding available for new developments or other projects in 2020. Considering the gaps in mental health services across the country, this will come as a serious disappointment to many. It will potentially mean a year in which we will be at a standstill in mental health services.

A Mental Health Commission report, published this morning, identified the long-term neglect of people with serious and enduring mental health illnesses in the mental health system. This is just another in a regular series of reports on mental health services that have been highly critical of the gaps in services. Issues identified in the report published this morning arise regularly in my constituency clinic in Wexford. The department of psychiatry at Waterford University Hospital patches people up as best it can. Once people with mental health issues are ready to leave the department of psychiatry, there is a problem in that there are no rehabilitation places or appropriate emergency accommodation available for them. Very often they end up back on the streets or in inappropriate emergency accommodation, only to find themselves back in the department of psychiatry several months later. We end up with a revolving door system.

We are in year 13 of a ten-year mental health strategy known as A Vision for Change. Barely over 50% of the staff recommended are in place. For people with intellectual disabilities and a mental illness, there are less than 10% of the staff recommended in place. In many regions there are no staff available to deal with people suffering from intellectual disabilities and a mental illness. This means that other sectors of the mental health service have to pick up the slack, which creates pressure points and serious issues. In its 2016 manifesto Fine Gael proposed expanding significantly the Jigsaw programme. When I was elected in 2016, the talk was that a Jigsaw service would open in County Tipperary within a few months. That still has not occurred. No other Jigsaw services have opened in the entire time, which is simply unacceptable.

We were promised a review and an update of the 2001 Mental Health Act. When it was introduced, it was considered to be a model progressive Act. However, it needs to be updated with a modern understanding of mental health. Unqualified consultants are practising as consultant psychiatrists, something which has been condemned regularly by the President of the High Court. That issue has not been addressed.

The majority of mental health facilities across the country remain unregulated and uninspected. The Mental Health Commission has not been given the powers it needs. This year we had the shocking situation where the mental health service at St. Luke’s in Kilkenny was being prosecuted in the District Court for a lack of care for some of the most vulnerable patients in the hospital. Suicide remains the greatest cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 24 years. Primary care psychology waiting lists are shocking. The number of anti-depressant prescriptions is on the increase because general practitioners see no other options or pathways to get people help in mental health services.

In the replies to parliamentary questions several weeks ago we found out that €24 million of the funding for mental health services had gone unspent so far this year. This morning the Minister for Health said money would be spent as needed. Money is desperately needed in mental health services. The Minister claimed money was not an issue in solving mental health issues. There is no lack of policy. All that is left is implementation and oversight, both of which are significantly lacking across the entire Government portfolio, not just in mental health services. We end up with a mental health service which patches people up, puts them out on the road, only to see them come back again some months later. We need significant changes in mental health services.

There has been a failure to develop a small and medium-sized enterprise sector. Ireland is a small open economy which is vulnerable to what happens in the international economy. In recent years we have had the economic winds behind our back, with record low interest rates on our debts. The European Central Bank has introduced quantitative easing and there has been strong global demand for our products. All of this has led to a significant bounce in the corporation tax yield, well ahead of anything predicted several years ago. However, 45% of all corporation tax now comes from only ten companies. This is unhealthy and dangerous as the money could disappear overnight. It is similar to the situation with stamp duty 12 years ago.

The economy needs to be rebalanced. There is a need for greater emphasis on the small and medium-sized enterprise sector and indigenous firms. We need to make Ireland an attractive place in which to innovate, as well as to start and grow small and medium-sized enterprises. Many of the Government’s supports for the sector are too complicated or unsuitable. There is too much red tape for firms to negotiate. While the improvement in the self-employed tax credit announced in the budget is to be welcomed, it has still not been equalised. Insurance costs are crippling firms and have doubled for many businesses. Some businesses must self-insure, while many festivals have been cancelled owing to the lack of insurance coverage. The Government needs to take this issue seriously. It must not just come up with plans but must implement them too. Insurance awards in the courts are simply too high. Fraudsters and exaggerators fear no consequences. There continues to be a lack of transparency in the insurance industry.

The south-east region has the highest rate of unemployment. I have raised this matter continually with the Minister, but there seems to be no focus or sense of urgency to address it. In Wexford we have few IDA Ireland jobs and little IDA Ireland land. Those employed in the south east are on low incomes and the quality of jobs is poor. We need to see higher quality jobs in the south east. We must provide the necessary training to ensure people can take on those quality jobs when they are provided.

There is a serious lack of targeting the south east. Rosslare Europort receives two small mentions in the Ireland 2040 plan. There is no mention of any project in the plan for the south east, save for two motorways which were already planned, paid for and practically built under the previous Government. Rosslare Europort has not been brought up on a single occasion by any Minister when dealing with the United Kingdom on Brexit. The United Kingdom technically still owns Rosslare Europort under a convoluted and age-old ownership model. Having met the UK Transport Secretary at Westminster last summer, I understand the British Government is quite happy to separate Fishguard and Rosslare and hand Rosslare back to the Irish Government. However, there is no interest in this happening. Over €100 million was invested in Dublin Port, from which ships were turned away fthis summer, yet Rosslare Europort is operating at 40% capacity. It should be thriving.

There has been little or no advancement in the development of a technological university for the south east. What is happening? When I was at Waterford Institute of Technology in the 1990s, we were told that it would be the university for the south east, but there seems to have been no advancement whatsoever. Without a university in the south east, the economy of the region cannot be addressed because if one wants to attract international companies, they need to know that there is university training available for their employees as and when they will need it.

I want to address the issue of the disability training allowance of €31.80 per week. It was cut for new entrants this year. It costs people with a disability more to undergo training to find work because it costs them more to live, particularly for transport. I cannot understand the reason the cut was made as the allowance involved little cost. It seems miserly and I was disappointed when it was not reversed in the budget. The rehabilitative training allowance allowed people with disabilities an opportunity to move from education to employment. It is most regrettable, therefore, that it has not been restored.

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