Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I congratulate the Minister of State on her appointment and I wish her well for this Dáil term.

The programme for Government, under the mental health section, commits the Government to ensuring access to appropriate supports when and where people need them. The emphasis on when and where is very important because it is widely accepted that mental health services should be provided to patients as close as possible to their locality. This is because contact with and support from family and friends plays such a vital role in recovery.

The whole of County Tipperary is without a single inpatient bed in the mental health services. South Tipperary patients must travel to Kilkenny and north Tipperary patients must travel to Ennis. That situation is completely unsatisfactory and unacceptable. The former Fine Gael Minister of State for mental health services, Jim Daly, had agreed with all stakeholders, including the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive, consultant psychiatrists and the local community to construct a 20-bed inpatient unit at Tipperary University Hospital. Possible locations had even been identified. For whatever reason, however, this development never went ahead. I appeal to the Minister of State to recommence that process to construct that unit at Tipperary University Hospital and to provide the people of Tipperary with adequate, reasonable inpatient mental health services into the future.

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