Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ward for raising this important matter. I was happy to stay late tonight to answer it because it is so important. The Deputy was not wrong when he said it was a stark report and it does require a cross-departmental approach. There is no doubt about that.

The Government and I welcome this recent report by the Mental Health Commission, recognising the vital role it plays in supporting and assisting us in developing and improving our mental health services overall. The report presents a realistic picture of the various challenges faced by people with mental health difficulties in the criminal justice system. These include issues that extend beyond the capacity of specialist mental health services and require input from other sectors, such as primary care, addiction and homeless services. I met with Dr. Susan Finnerty, the author of the report, and John Farrelly, the chief executive of the Mental Health Commission, earlier this month prior to the report's publication. We had a constructive discussion on many of the report's findings.

Importantly, the Government remains firmly committed to continuing to improve forensic mental health services, as reflected in various commitments under the programme for Government, Sharing the Vision and in the significant new investment that has been provided to the development of the National Forensic Mental Health Service. Both the opening of the new forensic mental health facility in Portrane and the development of a high-level interdepartmental task force to consider the mental health and addiction challenges of people in the criminal justice system are specific commitments under the programme for Government. That task force has been up and running for the past six months. It is chaired by Kathleen Lynch, who was formerly a Minister of State with responsibility for mental health. The task force will develop a report in early 2022 and will propose a high-level implementation plan for any required actions arising.

The issues under consideration by the task force include diversion of individuals with addiction and mental health difficulties away from the criminal justice system. Three subcommittees have been set up to look at the issues of diversion, the capacity of the Irish Prison Service and the National Forensic Mental Health Service, and community issues, including throughcare from custody. When I met with Kathleen Lynch, we discussed the fact a person might be exiting prison on a Friday evening with nowhere to go. He or she does not have a medical card. If that person has mental health difficulties, we will be recommending, or I hope we will be recommending, that he or she has some place to stay and has, at minimum, a medical card and an apportionment with a mental health consultant or medical person within seven days. That is what we need to stop the revolving door. That high-level interdepartmental task force has been operational for the past six months and is doing a huge amount of work.

As the Deputy may be aware, everyone who is committed to prison is subject to a comprehensive medical assessment by the prison healthcare team, which can include, as appropriate, a mental health assessment. This is used to develop an individual healthcare plan for the person while in custody. Where necessary, individuals are referred to a forensic clinician or prison service psychologist, or both. In-reach mental health services are provided by the HSE's National Forensic Mental Health Service, involving the provision of weekly forensic mental health sessions. However, we heard from Dr. Finnerty that these services are a postcode lottery and can be better in some areas than others, so that is something we have to look at as well. The Deputy is quite right in what he said. The Minister for Justice could be answering these questions as well but I am looking at it purely from a mental health perspective, and that is the side of it we are trying to drive on.

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