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

I will go straight to the punch. The following quotes appeared in a media report, and I thank Dr. Susan Finnerty of the Mental Health Commission for her contribution to that. The report states:

A deep dive into mental health services for children and young people in Ireland has shown several regions in the south - including Cork - to be facing very serious issues that could be placing kids at risk. ... A failure of management and governance was leading to what the report called "inefficient and unsafe” CAMHS services and there were specific instances of very worrying dysfunction - such as evidence that anti-psychotic drugs were being given without proper supervision or monitoring.

The report goes on to identify several other issues:

Children getting 'lost' in the system with families facing a maze of bureaucracy in their search for help

Long waiting lists

Staffing problems

Lack of capacity

Lack of emergency and out-of-hours services

Failure to manage risk

Failure to properly resource services or support staff

Ironically, Deputy Butler is the third Minister of State with responsibility for mental health in the short time I have been in the House. I sit on the Committee on Mental Health. I remember talking to a child psychologist who was involved in CAMHS and who came as a witness to the committee. The first question I asked that gentleman was whether he had been threatened by senior management not to come in as a witness, and he said “Yes”. There is a dysfunction within the HSE and it is rotten to the core.

One of the speakers mentioned Bantry Hospital. We are talking about mental health yet we are still closing a 22-bed mental health respite centre, the Owenacurra Centre in Midleton, and I want to put that on the record. I have also been informed that Cork is lacking and is probably 20 to 30 years behind the rest of the country. The Minister spoke about value for money. Back in 2018, we spent about €40 million on cognitive and other therapies but we are spending more than €400 million on medicine, so there is a massive overreliance on medication for people. It is disgusting when we find young children on one of the strongest medicines in the world. It is crazy.

Although we are discussing this in the House now, an hour ago, Róisín Clarke of Mental Health Reform pointed out that we are still going to admit children to adult wards, which is in contravention of the child's human rights. This is 2023. I appeal to the Minister to take everything on board. I am here a while. I have lost faith in the mental health system in this country, but not in the staff.

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