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

People in their thousands are presenting to emergency departments in mental health crises because of the lack of mental health care in our communities. If they are lucky enough to be seen in emergency departments, they are then referred back into the community for treatment. An average of 4,500 people are so referred every year. There are huge vacancies in our community mental health services. I will give the example of my area of Clondalkin.

I only got this response a few days ago. We have vacancies for one area director of nursing, two clinical nurse managers, three clinical nurse specialists, two community mental health nurses, one advanced nurse practitioner and five staff nurses. Does the Tánaiste think this level of vacancy is acceptable? What will he do about it?

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