Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The last few months have taken a toll on everyone, particularly those suffering with mental health issues. It has been an intense period and the stress and anxiety associated with the coronavirus has put a strain on many of us. Before the pandemic and the lockdown, mental health services across the State were bursting at the seams. They did not have the capacity to deal with the number of people presenting for services. It can be difficult to get people to engage with mental health services but, when they do engage, they can find themselves turned away because of a lack of capacity. This is a disgrace. It is a result of decades of underfunding. People presenting to mental health services are extremely vulnerable. It is simply not good enough for the door to be closed on them in their time of need. This is not the fault of the staff, who do great work, but rather a sign that the whole system is completely overwhelmed.

We have seen endless documents and reports outlining how poor our services actually are but Governments have continued to sit on their hands and hope that glossy documents will be seen as progress. A Vision For Change was produced in 2006 but everything still seems to be the same. It was a great document but its recommendations have barely seen the light of day. We now have Sharing The Vision. I hope the 41 recommendations identified for the short term are implemented within the 18 months.

It was reported in the Irish Examinerlast week that 2,315 children are currently waiting to see a specialist in CAMHS. Some 224 of these have been waiting for more than a year. This is completely unacceptable. In my own constituency of Dublin Bay North, 152 children have been waiting more than three months just to be allocated an appointment. I believe the Minister of State will agree that is not right.

Last week, my colleague, Deputy Ward, and I had the pleasure of receiving a petition from Stacey Quinn, which the Minister of State has now received. Ms Quinn is a constituent of mine. She collected 45,000 signatures calling for a 24-7 mental health service. As the Minister of State knows, it is not only between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday to Friday that people need services. We need a publicly funded mental health service of which we can all avail and we needed it yesterday.

Consultations and reports are fine but, unfortunately, they do not improve even one person's situation. We need action and we need proper services. I wish the Minister of State the very best in her new role.

See this speech in context