Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes, it is something for which we will all be calling. I met representatives of Mental Health Reform yesterday. I commend them on the briefings they gave us and, I am sure, others in advance of this debate. They are always available to provide briefings and support. They made a strong case for the reinstatement of the role of national director for mental health. I asked why it was gone but no one could answer.

When people were asked during Covid what the most important issues to them that needed to be resolved were, they mentioned climate, housing and employment. The fourth issue they mentioned was mental health. It would not even have been in the top ten a decade ago. Now, people want to understand mental health. They want the supports to help themselves, their loved ones and others, including those in their social circles who may have mental health issues.

Yesterday, I shared a story from my experience of ten years of taking advice clinics and meeting people. Ten years ago, people would have come to an advice clinic and said they had a housing issue. Through the course of that conversation or dealing with them down the line, they may have then mentioned issues with their mental health. Perhaps they had a letter from their GPs. Now, mental health is among the first issues they mention. This is a positive in terms of where the country is now compared to where it was. We are talking about it and want to deal with it, but we need the services to do that. I hope that, given Deputy Butler's role as Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, her call for the reinstatement will result in it being delivered. I do not know where the resistance to it would be. I would be surprised if the Minister for Health was resistant to it. I would be surprised if there were budgetary constraints. It has to happen. If it is one of the things that come out of this tragic series of events in south Kerry, at least that will be something.

I will move beyond the case and its outcome now because we will discuss it again. We are coming out of nearly two years of Covid and we have seen an increase in the number of presentations at mental health services by young people. The true impact of the past couple of years on young people and their mental health will become more apparent over the next year or two because we have been living through extraordinary times. I hope that we will not have to live through them again. Young people are raising their hands and saying they need help and want to talk about it. We need to ensure that there are services in primary and secondary schools.

Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. This right covers the full spectrum of health and well-being and guaranteeing it requires a comprehensive multisectoral response through an integrated system that involves parents, peers, the wider family, schools and the provision of support and assistance via trained staff. These are wonderful words. Delivering on them will not be easy, but they must be delivered. We need a sea change in how we approach mental health and deliver mental health services. We need to make that delivery a norm in our system, including our schooling system, and in how our peer groups and families operate. We have a great deal to do to catch up. Our country is distinct from others, in that we have a particular condition and we have been doing great work in trying to bring mental health and our discussions on same to the fore, but we need to back that up not just with resources, but with whole-of-system changes in how we approach the matter. That includes our schools.

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