Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not have a date for that right now, but I indicated to the Deputy that I will support its establishment and talk to the Minister for Health about it. Equally, I believe the Deputy's voice matters. Every Deputy's voice matters. We have to keep at this. We can set up the independent implementation monitoring body to monitor the implementation of this, but we cannot be blind to certain constants in the mental health service. There have been certain positives as well that must be acknowledged. The establishment of the child and adolescent units was effective, in terms of the facilities and so forth, in reducing the number of children and teenagers in adult facilities, although there are still too many. When no child is in an adult facility we will be satisfied. There has been some progress, but the problem has been the recruitment of personnel, including in the child and adolescent services. We must tackle that collectively, and if we do not get particular personnel we must work on alternatives to that. There is no point in keeping our heads in the sand either and just passing it over to some independent implementation body. This must be ongoing. The recruitment of key personnel is a problem that is not going away. That is where I wish to focus our attention, in terms of ensuring we can fill the gaps in the service at present which are leaving the people who need the services short.

See this speech in context