Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, like other speakers, I welcome this discussion so early on in the lifetime of this Government. It signals an intent by the Government to address the issue of mental health once and for all. The Minister of State was a strong advocate in the area of mental health in the previous Government and I have no doubt will be such in this Government. Her efforts ensured that it received strong recognition in the programme for Government as well, which is vitally important.

The word "Cinderella" is one I have heard used often in the context of mental health. Despite the best efforts of the Minister, unfortunately the treatment of mental health is severely under-resourced. That is something we have to correct incrementally insofar as we can as a Government. A sum of 6% of the budget is simply not enough and that is replicated across the country. As public representatives, we see the lack of services and the difficulty for people to access the services that are there. We hear their stories on a daily and weekly basis.

As we know, mental health, or, more to the point, the inadequate treatment of mental health, is the root cause of so many issues in our society. Certainly, we have an acute housing crisis and homelessness situation but I have no doubt that in many cases the root cause of rough sleeping is inadequate treatment for mental health. There is no question about that. The whole area of addiction is very much linked to mental health and the lack of treatment for it. We all know how destructive addiction can be but, again, inadequate treatment for mental health is very often the root cause of that.

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In many cases, it leads to criminality and people entering the criminal world, often to feed an addiction or simply because they have not received treatment for mental health problems and it is a way out for them, so that is a very significant issue. No doubt, mental health problems very often result in severe physical health problems emerging after a while if there is undertreatment. For a wide variety of reasons, it is extremely short-sighted for any Government not to prioritise and adequately resource mental health services.

One area I will focus on is the lack of housing provision for people with mental health problems. Very often, as public representatives, family members trying to provide housing for those with mental health problems will come to us. Often these involve mild mental health problems but involve people who are patients of mental health services in some shape or form. We do not have housing options for them to provide them with independent living with some wrap-around services. Wrap-around services simply are not in place, which is not good enough. Very often, people end up in accommodation that is not suitable for them. I know of one case where someone is in long-term accommodation in a homeless service because there is no proper accommodation is available. That is something about which this individual's family is very concerned but there does not seem to be a way out through an alternative.

We have heard how difficult it is to get inpatient treatment but that is not the solution for everybody. There need to be more community services at local level. There is a significant deficit in this at primary care level that we must address.

Another area I will focus on is the mental health of young people and children. It is a significant issue, the extent of which is under-recognised. It has been referred to in terms of CAMHS waiting lists. Anxiety is widespread, particularly among children and young people. We live in a stressful, difficult and tough world. Social media has amplified this to a very large extent. Unfortunately, this puts ferocious pressure on young people, pressure we did not have when we were growing up, so we must recognise this and, at Government level, there has to be significant recognition of treatment for things like anxiety in young people because, God knows, it leads to something far worse if it is untreated.

I welcome the recognition regarding the Mental Health Bill. We must progress that, but as we know full well, if we do not adequately resource it, it will not provide the solutions we need. Giving something a strong footing from a statutory point of view is very welcome but it has to be adequately resourced so that we can provide the services that are so badly needed across society.

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