Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on her appointment and I agree with my colleague, Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, who said last night that there is no better person in terms of her care for the unborn in our campaign some time back. She gave great support to that and if she gives the same support in the job she is in, we are in safe hands.

The mental health system is preparing for a tsunami of cases from young people. Staff working in the sector are worried. The sector cannot cope. Ireland's mental health services have a litany of shortcomings, such as a lack of funding, long waiting lists and a disjointed system without an adequate joined-up approach to caring for the individual. The mental health system in Ireland is especially poor at serving young people. Now, with demand expected to increase due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are worries over whether the system can cope. The big question many constituents have is whether the system can sustain an anticipated spike in cases and referrals.

One major issue in the third level sector is that the €2 million announced last October by Mary Mitchell O'Connor, the then Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, for student mental health and well-being initiatives has not materialised. This was announced nearly 12 months ago. What happened to that funding? I have been contacted by many families across west Cork who cannot access mental health services. One such family had a daughter who needed urgent care from professionals and was on the verge of suicide. All of us have been touched by family or friends who have committed suicide and the devastation and trauma it leaves behind is undescribable.

The Government appears to love talking about mental health but that is not followed up by action, given the lack of resources in the health service. It is so wrong on so many fronts that people are being left in acute mental health units who simply do not need to be there.

I am calling for an urgent review of the availability of mental health services in every county by the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people. This review should be swift and comprehensive and it should be done in a timely manner. The findings of this review should then be debated in Dáil Éireann within four weeks of this day. We simply cannot allow more people to take their lives due to mental health illness while this Government fails to implement the required policy interventions.

As the Minister of State has responsibility for older people, I must take the time to ask her about the cross-Border directive. Thousands of people in the South of Ireland requiring knee, hip and in particular, cataract surgery, are going to the North for surgery. Due to Brexit, I asked the then Tánaiste last year if the cross-Border directive would continue and the answer I got was that legislation had been put in place to make sure it would. Is this the case? Myself, Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, Councillors Ben Dalton O'Sullivan and Danny Collins and others have taken thousands of people to the North for eye surgery. Can the Minister of State tell me if this cross-Border directive will continue after Brexit? People cannot be left to go blind on the Government's watch.

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