Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State will know that the e-mental health hub in Castlerea was opened in June 2020 as a state-of-the-art, first-of-its-kind hub for mental health. This was to serve the western region as a psychiatry of later life day hospital and a child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, Connect, that is, to serve the needs of both young and old.

I first began asking questions in late 2020 on the staffing levels at the hub and the services that were available. One reply from the HSE on 7 December 2020 advised me that one post had been filled and it was at recruitment stage with three posts out of a total of 21 posts. After further questions and a number of meetings in 2021, it then became apparent – unbelievably so – that no funding had been provided at that point for 2021. This was not common knowledge until I raised it in the House on a number of occasions last year. At that point, in July 2021, the Minister of State made a funding announcement more than halfway through the year.

I have previously asked the Minister of State my first question and I hope that she will answer it today. Why was funding for the e-mental health hub not continued into 2021? Why did it take until July 2021 for an announcement to be made, given there were no posts in place, the vast majority were vacant and there were no services available? Almost two years on now from the opening, the latest information I have is that five posts out of the seven for the psychiatry of later life remain unfilled and there are three posts vacant for CAMHS Connect. I also hope the Minister of State will be able to tell me what services are being provided in the e-mental health hub today, if the psychiatry of later life day hospital is functioning, and if it is not, when it will be.

The Minister of State will know that before it became an e-mental health hub, this was the Rosalie home. It was a home to dementia patients and older people with dementia. They had been promised by a previous Government they would be allowed to see out their days in that home. That promise was reneged on. They were sent all over the place to different nursing homes. Their families were absolutely distraught. It was incredible how they, our most vulnerable citizens, were treated. It has been difficult to see that replaced and opened with great fanfare and not even funded by the HSE, particularly the psychiatry of later life given the importance of that service, especially in a county such as Roscommon where we have an older population. When it comes to health services, the people of Roscommon feel like the poor relation.

This, unfortunately, is yet another example of something state of the art and one of its kind that opened in Castlerea in Roscommon and not funded. Today, almost two years on, we still have posts that are vacant. There is no excuse for this. Had funding been put in place and continued into 2021 and there was a real effort made to fill those posts throughout last year rather than leaving it until more than midway through the year, we would not be in this position today. There are no guarantees we would. These are important services for young and old for the western region. If this is a state-of-the-art service, then it needs to be funded continually. We need to get the posts filled and we need to get those services in place. They are very important.

I had a message from a lady in Ballinasloe the other day. She just messaged me basically to query and raise the fact of the number of young people committing suicide. It is incredible. We need the supports there for young people and older people. We need them as quickly as possible. This should not have taken until now to get these posts filled. They should have been filled. I hope the Minister of State will be able to answer those questions.

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