Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is good to hear that the Tánaiste is disturbed, given that he launched the service in question. I will tell him the reason. Those involved are saying that their budgets are gone. In one area, they bought pictures costing €250 each to put on the walls in order to make things look nice. Televisions have been put in. Painters are going everywhere in different places. Now, however, the HSE is saying that it has run out of money and that its budget is gone. It is good to know, and I do not doubt the Tánaiste in this regard, that, nationally, more money is being given to mental health services. However, it is not a lot of good to somebody in County Roscommon who is vulnerable and who does not have the service in question to be told that more money has been provided nationally but, tough luck, the money has run out in Roscommon.

The hostels to which I refer were step-down facilities. Unfortunately, with the 23-bed unit full to capacity, there does not appear to be a step-down facility in Roscommon to help people on their journey. I again ask the Tánaiste that the money required be put in by the HSE for the staffing of this new innovative idea the Tánaiste talked about and with which he, Jim Daly and Paul Reid were involved. Will the Tánaiste make sure that the HSE prioritises this as a matter of urgency? In the context of mental health, people in Roscommon, Galway, Mayo and throughout the west of Ireland matter as much anybody else in any other part of the country, regardless of budgets.

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