Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for agreeing to give me time. I was at meeting of the Business Committee.

I accept these difficult decisions have to be made and I commend all Deputies on making them. However, we make them without the necessary information. We cannot change the information that we have now but we can make sure that we are not in this position again.

During the lockdown the national self-harm registry stopped collecting and collating data. Staff started collecting the data again fully at the end of August, having started before that, and is now collecting the information both now and retrospectively. The registry stopped because its staff were not determined to be essential workers. I want to ensure that does not happen again. When we talk about mental health and rolling over emergency legislation, we need to make those decisions with as much information as possible. Above all, we need information on presentations of self-harm in hospitals. I do not know whether they were up or down, and I think that no one knows this information. People in emergency departments know about their own place of work anecdotally but that will vary across the country. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, collects data on suicides. Its staff were not classified as essential workers. More fundamentally, the CSO gives out its first information on suicides in 2020 in the first half of next year.

I accept that it is difficult to collect this information but we did give extra powers to coroners, or there were at least provisions regarding coroners, in the emergency legislation in March.

I am urging the Minister of State to make sure that we have as much information as possible on the incidence of suicide and self-harm. If we do not have that information, how can we, as decision makers, possibly take account of it in our decision-making? It may be the case that the Department has data which nobody else has. If it does, I ask the Minister of State to confirm that. I am not trying to put her in a difficult position and I greatly appreciate her allowing me time to speak. However, if there is information that is available but not in the public domain, I would like to know about it. I would like, at least, to know that the data on suicide and self-harm during the last lockdown are being considered as we make these difficult decisions.

Finally, this provision relates specifically to the Mental Health Commission. Has any study been carried out in respect of the impact of having sittings of the commission take place remotely on the people who are the subject of those decisions and are being detained involuntarily? I cannot imagine anything worse than being strapped down and administered medicines against my will but I accept that doctors say it is necessary to protect the individuals who are being administered the medicines and sometimes others around them. People are not able to challenge such a decision in person. It is being done remotely and they are being told by the person who is advocating their detention that the commission has agreed that they should be detained. These patients are not being told by the decision makers, because they are remote from the individual. The individual is being informed of the outcome by the person who has said to him or her: "I know you do not want to be detained but I am saying it is for your good." For that person to be going back to the individual and saying the commission agrees with that decision is unfortunate. We need more information on the impact this is having. I know the Minister of State does not have that information today and I am not raising the matter by way of criticism of her. I certainly am not raising it by way of criticism of the staff of the Central Statistics Office or the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland, who were obeying the law. We need to make sure we learn from what went on before and that we are in a position to make these decisions with much more information, if we have to make them again. I thank the Minister of State for her time.

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