Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Aontú is supporting this motion. The only problem I have is that if the motion is passed but the necessary investment is not put into services, there will be no beds for children within the system in this State. We need to have enough child psychiatric beds to admit children into. Otherwise it is not going to work for the children on the ground. We need to ensure that all children under the age of 18 have access to urgent emergency mental health services and that they are given access to an age-appropriate specialist, 24-7. At present they do not have that and many children are going into adult emergency departments where there is usually only a consultant in adult care to provide the service to them.

We also need to talk very seriously about funding. The World Health Organization advises that a state put 12% of its overall health budget into mental health. We are not even achieving half of that currently. Even in the middle of a pandemic when such pressures were being put on people's mental health, we only invested 5.1% of our health budget in mental health. Today in The Irish Times, a consultant child psychiatrist, Dr. Ian Kelleher, warned how dire the situation is. He stated:

There should be 100 specialist Camhs teams in Ireland. [Right now] There are only 73. Looking within the individual teams, many are grossly understaffed, some working with just one-quarter of the recommended level of staffing. Clinicians are stretched to the limit trying to keep up with urgent referrals and provide quality care.

This is somebody from the front line. With such a shockingly low level of funding, it is only a matter of time before a disaster happens. We are creating the recipes for crises such as the one that happened in Kerry. Unless the Government gets real with regard to the shortfall in investment, we are not going to see any change.

I was also told today that 16 and 17 year-old patients are ending up in adult emergency departments and there are no specific services for them. That needs to be looked at because there is a world of difference between the services needed by 16 and 17 year-olds and adults. The environments in which they are treated need to be different as well and must be suited to their needs.

This situation has been made worse by the pandemic. It is incredible that it is two years since the start of the Covid crisis and we still do not have official, trustworthy statistics on the rates of suicide and self-harm in this State. I understand that the suicide rates are collected from coroner court decisions on what happened in certain cases but surely the Government itself has carried out research into what is happening with regard to suicide rates across the country. Is the Government carrying out specific research into the levels of suicidality and suicide in this State as a result of the pandemic?

If it is not, is there a plan to do so? Is there a plan to understand the exact cost to the lives of young people, in particular, in terms of what happened in the past while?

A survey was carried out on 195 psychiatrists of the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland in May and June 2020 which found there was a 64% reported increase in referrals for self-harm and suicidal ideation. There was evidence of increased lethality of self-harm in at least one hospital. The Government needs to provide an update. This goes back to the request our party has made to it numerous times for a full investigation of what happened during the crisis and its effects on society. We need a start date for that investigation about which the Government is giving a nebulous promise.

Funding shortfalls are a political choice. They do not happen by accident. One will never see more investment in mental health on the front page of a Fine Gael election manifesto, but might see tax cuts for upper-income earners. Until mental health becomes a political priority for all the Government parties, we will not see change. I urge the Government to get real on political priorities.

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