Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My constituency of Dublin North-West is unfortunately an area with a very high suicide rate. According to statistics provided to the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs in 2019, one third of young people were struggling with mental health issues. This is a very high figure, particularly as the services are severely underfunded. In the last few years, not much has improved. In fact, the provision of mental health services has gotten much worse. The pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of young people. Its impact on young people is yet to be fully understood but it is clear that there has been a significant rise in both anxiety and depression among young people, triggered by the unprecedented stresses caused by social isolation during the pandemic. Recent studies have shown that a significant number of young people are deliberately harming themselves and that many young people are experiencing suicidal ideation. Expert evidence shows that the onset of mental disorders peaks during the adolescent and early adult years and this is one of the leading causes of disability among many young people. This is why early intervention is so important.

The recent damning report on CAMHS shows that this Government failed significant numbers of children at a time when help was most crucial. If provided with properly-funded services, those children could go on to live productive and fulfilling lives, up to and into adulthood. The consequences of the failure to provide care to over 100 children and the failure to follow up on care for another 140 do not bear thinking about. These failures have the real possibility of destroying lives and creating obstacles to the future potential of these children, as well as negatively impacting on their employment prospects. These vulnerable children have become even more vulnerable because of these failures. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that many of these failed children could be condemned to a lifetime of reliance on mental health services. This is shocking and distressing for both the children and their families. If young people access mental health supports early, they are less likely to continue to experience mental health issues into adulthood. These children represent a generation of adolescents and young people who are in urgent need of mental health treatment and who are being failed by this Government. Dual diagnosis is another area that requires special treatment and applies to young adults. Sinn Féin has put forward solutions that will ensure mental health services are properly funded and staffed and a national clinical director for mental health is reinstated.

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