Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The problem I have raised is an example of how the importance of mental health provision in this country is continuously overlooked. We discussed that during the debate on Deputy Ward's motion that was passed earlier in the week. People like Jack are suffering because of a poorly provisioned mental health service. The World Health Organization advises that 14% of a country's health budget should be set aside for mental health provision. We fall way short of that in this country. Successive Governments have fallen short by ignoring the issues and allowing them to pile up year after year.

I appreciate that the Covid crisis has set the situation back and everything had to be done in that context. However, that is little comfort to parents like Jack's, who have been up four nights on the trot. I know the family well and his mother came to me a couple of years ago, at the start of all of this. The issues are continuous. They started when he was underage and, when he reached 18, he fell between the cracks. There are families like Jack's all around the country, in my constituency and in those of the Ministers of State, Deputies Feighan, Rabbitte and Butler. People are falling through the cracks because there is not enough funding for mental health services.

If the Government does nothing else before it finishes its term, I ask that it address this issue and ensure that families like Jack's, when they go looking for services because they are worried about their children, will find that the help is there for them. It should not be a case of scraping the bottom of the barrel. In Tipperary, all our services were taken away. If people have a mental health issue and need help, they must go to Kilkenny if they are in the south of the county and to Ennis if they are in the north of the county. Tipperary is the largest inland county in Ireland and it does not have health services for people like Jack. I plead with the Minister of State and his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to get control of this situation. Allocating 14% of the health budget to mental health should be the aim of this Government before the end of its term.

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