Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are back again. I am delighted to speak on this and thank Deputies Ward and Daly for bringing this motion forward. It was said already there are 71,000 children waiting for life-changing treatment, including 19,000 who are waiting for more than 12 months for occupational therapy, psychotherapy, speech and language therapy and many more mental health services. I do not know when the Government is actually going to get it into its head that everybody within the mental health services must be supported. That includes staff, not just patients. We must make a serious investment in this area.

The whistleblower was also mentioned. Consider the bravery of a whistleblower to come out and say things are not being done right and people are suffering. They should be commended, not punished. It is very important that is recognised. I also put a message into the Minister of State's mailbox today regarding another whistleblower within the mental health services. I look forward to her response to that. In addition, Deputy Mairéad Farrell and I have brought forward a Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill. We hope the Government will support it.

A few years ago, I think it was 2018, I was doing much research on how much Governments were spending on counselling, cognitive therapy and play therapy within the mental health service. It struck me that the budget at the time was approximately €10 million whereas the moneys spent on medicine - we will call it medicine - was more than €400 million. There is a massive disparity in that regard. We have all seen what has happened in the CAMHS in south Kerry. It must be noted that there are fabulous people within the system and that the services which are practically fully resourced do work. I will always give that commendation. The problem is, however, that if we do not start investing in this, we are going to be back here again with scandal after scandal. I call on the Minister of State and the Government to support this motion and do the right thing for the people of this country.

See this speech in context