Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

To put it bluntly, the Government is failing to listen or to address the needs on the required scale. I agree that, in addition to increasing funding, it is about listening to affected communities about what is really required and what works. Funding is part of the solution.

On the staffing gap, there are approximately 10,000 mental health whole-time equivalents, but A Vision for Change recommends having 13,000 such posts. How will that be addressed without a substantial increase in funding? What about the argument - with which I agree - of Mental Health Reform that the office of a national director of mental health should be reinstated in order to properly co-ordinate funding across the country? It is striking that when the State fails to deal with its responsibilities to provide these services as part of a properly funded national health service, the burden falls on many others across society. There was a briefing of community groups in the audiovisual room earlier today. They are struggling to provide help to those who need professional mental healthcare.

There is a broader point about what has been referred to as the mental health plague in our society. Mark Fisher, the late socialist author, wrote: "Capitalist realism insists on treating mental health as if it were a natural fact, like weather ... we need to ask: how has it become acceptable that so many people, and especially so many young people, are ill?" There has been an explosion in mental health problems not just in Ireland but across the world. That relates to the levels of alienation and oppression in our society.

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