Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak in this debate. I welcome to the Public Gallery Daniel Philpott, a transition year student from Presentation Brothers College in Cork who is here on work experience for the week. His people hail from Kanturk. I wish him the best of luck.

Much has been said about mental health in the last while. The issue is now very much to the fore and we need to have more engagement on it. As a public representative, I have had much engagement, particularly in the past two or three years, with people seeking help with addiction, trying to get into addiction centres or seeking referrals to such centres. There is a high level of addiction among younger people as well. While there are many strands of mental health, we should focus on young people and the pathways and lifestyles that lead to addiction in early adulthood. Betting is now a phenomenon as well, and many people are being referred to addiction centres for betting. In Ireland we tend to think of addiction in terms of alcohol, but many more issues need to be addressed. When discussing mental health we must also look at those centres.

Various initiatives have been taken in this area over the years, for example, the former Minister of State, John Moloney, who was from County Laois, introduced decongregated settings. Much more work needs to be done to ensure the best possible mental health services are available in the public system. The vast majority of people we deal with as public representatives, who seem to be in the most trouble, are those dealing with the public mental health services. They do not get what they need from them. They might get a referral to the accident and emergency department, from where they are sent home. That is not enough.

There are also many suicide prevention initiatives and organisations in Ireland, such as Pieta House. Deputy Neville spoke of being on the suicide watch in Limerick as well. Large numbers of people are falling victim to suicide and leaving families behind them. Some of those families are doing amazing work in trying to keep the memories of their loved ones alive by preventing more suicides, encouraging people to talk or working with initiatives such as Tree of Hope. That is to be welcomed and encouraged.

If we are to be taken seriously, we must accept that numbers have increased. The Government will answer that the recent mental health budget is the largest we have ever had. While that is true, there are many lacunas in services and many areas are not getting enough funding. We are not opening up enough to the various scourges out there. I had a lengthy discussion only last Monday about the lack of contentment in society and the challenges people face, such as social media and the way society has developed around it. We can bemoan social media and cite its negatives, but it is part of society just as television or radio were two or three generations ago. The question is how we will adapt to it. We must put initiatives in place through the HSE, the health services and the various Departments to empower our young people as we go forward. In my time as a public representative, I have never encountered as many addiction issues as I have in the past two or three years. The problem seems to be growing and that trend is a cause of major concern as we move into the third decade of the century.

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