Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, Peter Hughes of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, representing workers on the front line of our mental health services, called for an end to lip service and idle promises. As general secretary of the largest representative organisation for mental health workers, he is surely well placed to make such an appraisal of the past few years of the Government's and the political establishment's approach to the system. I join his call.

This crisis has highlighted not just the gaps in our services, which are plain to see for anyone who cared, but also the failure of the outgoing Government to do anything meaningful about them. It is generous to say the Government did the bare minimum during the austerity years but the damage done in the wake of that austerity is simply not good enough. For years, the Government has misled the House, the public and campaigners for mental health funding with delays, retractions and re-announcements. The costs have been far greater than the money needed to boost services or the false economy of savings on our vital health services. Mental health represented just 6% of planned health funding before this crisis. Unfortunately, I do not have enough time to go through all the issues but I will ask three brief questions.

We need to publish the refresher report on the A Vision for Change strategy. This is something the Government has talked about for almost five years, and it has used it as a smokescreen for an in-depth public assessment of the system, as would be done by a full, permanent mental health committee. The previous Government wound up the temporary Joint Committee on Future of Mental Health Care in 2018 and has ignored its recommendations. I ask the Minister to publish the report now. It was carried out under his time and reflects the reality of the services under his time, and he must take ownership of that. He must also ensure that any Government negotiations deal properly with mental health and that the public can be informed to scrutinise adequately any proposed Government on mental health. The Minister has the report and told me he would leave it to the next Government. I ask him to publish it now. There is cross-party agreement on the matter.

I also want to raise the effect of Covid-19 on our mental health services. Mental health staff must be provided with adequate PPE and safe and secure working conditions to protect themselves and those in their care. Social distancing presents serious issues in an overstretched, understaffed and overcrowded system. This cannot be done effectively and safely with the problems the system has faced due to years of neglect. The Mental Health Commission has expressed grave concerns about the delays in testing in the mental health settings, and it was only one month ago that all mental health staff were required to be tested, despite working with many high-risk and vulnerable people in crowded conditions.

Finally, I raise the problem of precarious work conditions for mental health professionals in the community and voluntary sector. Those organisations have been fantastic and much needed bodies for people who cannot access public services that, in too many cases, do not exist in their communities. Mental healthcare is not a charity. It is the right of the people and the duty of the State and the public service. We must protect the vital workers in these organisations and ensure that the expertise is not lost to fundraising difficulties or reorganisation during the crisis, as seen by Pieta House.

Any new Government needs to take mental health seriously, fund it properly and heed Peter Hughes's words. I have asked all parties to join together to form an Oireachtas mental health forum to support the permanent mental health committee. This is vital.

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