Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)

I speak in support of amendments Nos. 211 and 212. Deputies McGuinness and Clarke made the point about having whole-time equivalent clinicians benchmarked and having that as a basic requirement that the Mental Health Commission adjudicates on for service provision. When the Mental Health Commission is doing an inspection and is writing a report, there is a whole litany of conditions that must be met by a service. Staff are extremely focused on meeting all of those requirements. More basic to all of that, however, is to have adequate staffing in place in the first instance. It was a real strength of A Vision for Change, a document that is nearly 20 years old now, that it set out the staffing levels that were required per care group per 100,000 population across all services. It has been really regrettable that Sharing the Vision dispensed with that benchmarking, because with a Vision for Change, one could refer to those proposed staffing levels each year and see to what degree we were meeting those basic requirements - not even targets. If the Government were to sediment it in law that services, in order to operate safely, as is in the proposed wording, had to have a minimum complement of staff, it would be a really basic and important provision to make. It would actually make life easier for the Minister of State. I encourage her to consider that. There is very good evidence internationally to extend the age of CAMHS to 25. The points made on the independent complaints mechanism were very well made as well.

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