Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the Drogheda department of psychiatry in Crosslanes. Planning permission has been granted for a ten-bed extension. The significant issue in Louth-Meath is historically poor bed provision. We are operating at around 12.9 beds per 100,000, whereas in the rest of the State it is more like 15 or 16 beds per 100,000. We need a timeline for that. The Mental Health Commission has said that a number of times when it has checked, it has found an insufficient number of staff from a safety point of view, even in the current building. We need to look at that.

I am told that in Louth-Meath, there are about 40 nursing vacancies. There were 40 vacancies just before the moratorium, which then suddenly fell to around 13. This raises questions regarding nurses who are acting up when the position they were acting up from suddenly disappeared. I am told that if we take other disciplines into account, the number is even greater. We also have an issue with assessments, which can happen in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, particularly in the evening and night when people have mental health issues. This leads to some of the problems in accident and emergency departments.

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