Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also want to acknowledge the Ministers of State, Deputies Rabbitte and Butler, for their time tonight and last week on this serious issue of CAMHS. I will not question their bona fides or interest in mental health but interest is not enough; we need action. I am tired and frustrated and I have listened to all the contributions and there seems to be a lack of action. My frustration is nothing compared with the frustration the people in the Gallery feel when they are trying to get the care their children and families need. I mention the many people at home who are listening and the number of people who have contacted me in recent months.

The Government has a tactic of not opposing motions but there is a difference between not opposing motions and supporting them. It is a political game and if the Government does not oppose the motion then it does not have to vote against it when it comes down to it. I want to see the solutions I spoke about in the first part of the debate put into place. By not opposing this motion the Government is admitting that it has failed. It has failed the 4,000 children who are waiting on CAMHS lists for initial assessments. When this Government came into office there were only 2,000 children on CAMHS waiting lists; that is an 86% increase. The Government has failed the 13,000 children who are waiting for primary care psychology appointments. When this Government came into office that figure was 7,700; that is a 71% increase under this Government’s watch and that is not acceptable.

The Government has failed with the 14% increase in young people who are accessing Pieta House for counselling. I met Pieta House representatives during the week who told me that children as young as five are accessing Pieta's suicide and self-harm services. The Government has failed the children who are reliant on a postcode lottery for treatment. For example, there is a four-week waiting list for an appointment for a child or young person if they live in Wicklow but if you are a child or young person living in Cork, you could be waiting up to 30 weeks for that appointment, which is just not good enough. It was mentioned already that 741 children are admitted to hospital for mental health difficulties after presenting to accident and emergency departments. The report outlines this and I think there is a failure on the part of GPs because they feel they have no choice but to refer children into accident and emergency departments to get a psychiatric evaluation. They do so because they know the waiting lists in CAMHS and other services are not being dealt with.

There are also children who are waiting to be admitted into specialist inpatient care. There are fewer CAMHS beds available now than when this Government came into office. Only 51 of the 72 available beds for CAMHS are currently occupied. There are a further 16 beds - I hoped the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, would mention it in her closing remarks - in danger of closing in Cork at present, according to a statement during the week from the Psychiatric Nurses Association.

This issue regarding admitting children into psychiatric wards was raised at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Geneva during the week and the Government responded to that committee stating that Ireland may never reach a point of no child being admitted to adult units, which shows a significant lack of ambition in this regard. We need to adhere to international human rights standards.

There were 32 admissions of children to adult units in 2021, up from 27 in 2020. Those 32 children spent 217 days in total in adult psychiatric facilities. This is Draconian and it is a violation of human rights.

By not opposing this motion, the Government is agreeing to the Sinn Féin call to legislate for this issue. I know the systems are not in place now. I live in the real world, but we have to be ambitious. We have to put services in place. We have to say that putting children into adult psychiatric facilities, whether they are 16 or 17, or younger than that, is not good enough and we must put measures in place to stop that. If that requires legislation, that is what we are calling for.

I mentioned statistics. I mentioned solutions at the start of this. Behind every one of those statistics is a child with hopes, dreams and ambitions, a child with a family who are lost with what is going on for them in trying to get the right care for their child at the right time and the right place. It is a ripple effect. As was said already, there is no greater crime than denying a child the chance to reach his or her full potential.

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, did not oppose this motion. I have never pleaded for anybody in the Dáil previously but I am pleading that the Minister of State put the solutions that Sinn Féin brought forward into place.

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