Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am open to discussions with the Deputy and others regarding the best way forward here. I have a sense that over the last ten to 15 years there has been investment in child and adult mental health and that certain services developed in certain areas. From just observing, it seems to have never reached the optimum levels that we would all have understood would be the case when we started down this road of creating genuine child and adolescent mental health services. It must also be said that there are many good practises across the country and many good practitioners and psychiatrists who are angry and annoyed with what has transpired here.

The Deputy is correct, however, in saying this is not just about one in NCHD. There is a systemic collapse here in respect of overall clinical governance and overall management of the service. Any review must look end-to-end at it. Questions were raised, including the fundamental decision to have an NCHD in charge of a community area and so on. People may have made a call at the time, but even that must be interrogated in respect of best practice in future. There is a broader issue around the recruitment of qualified personnel within the mental health arena generally. We must face up to that now. This is no longer just about percentages of funding, etc. It is a matter of getting high-quality services in place and that has proved challenging in some areas.

See this speech in context