Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While I welcome this Bill and the vital and long-overdue protections it will help to guarantee for citizens of the State, I despair at the snail's pace of progress on reform in mental health services, and even more crucially, on the provision of those services for those people who need them. As I was sitting here, I was imagining if previous Governments had really resourced A Vision for Change and put the resources and what was needed behind it, where we would be now.

In February this year, Sinn Féin tabled legislation which would have introduced many of the reforms contained within this Bill. However, it was not supported by the Government at the time. I commend my colleague, Deputy Ward, who has done so much work in this area. While I welcome CAMHS being brought under the regulation of the Mental Health Commission, there are areas on which the Bill is not strong enough and aspects such as failure to include an explicit ban on the admission of children into adult psychiatric units. We have already heard the harrowing testimony over recent weeks regarding the abuse suffered by children in the State in school settings. We should be going and above to ensure our vulnerable children are protected in law to the highest standards possible. This Bill fails to do that. However, as Deputy Ward said, we will be putting amendments into the Bill to make it better.

The level of provision of mental health services by the Government continues to fail those who need it. Just as we are speaking on this, it also fails those who are working in the services. Earlier this week, members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland in my own county of Mayo, and in Galway, Roscommon and the CHO 2 area, have been forced to initiate industrial action over the staff shortages and the knock-on effects on services. It is unbelievable that the HSE is refusing to recruit all new graduate nurses. Only half of the required psychiatric nurse graduates for the area have been recruited. Meanwhile, we have 825 people waiting more than 52 weeks in the CHO 2 area for psychology. We have 236 people waiting for CAMHS. Why are permanent contracts not being offered to these nurses? While the Government might say the recruitment ban is lifted, it has not been lifted in Mayo or in the CHO 2 area. There are too many positions that are still vacant and too many nurses and qualified people in our health services going abroad each year to provide mental health services in other countries. How many of them would stay if they were given permanent contracts? The general secretary of the PNA said that around 10% of psychiatric nurses are leaving Ireland each year. I ask the Minister of State and the Minister of Health to urgently intervene to resolve the industrial action there and to address the chronic understaffing in all of those three counties.

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