Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I commend and thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for all she has done in this regard. I thank her for her constant support and engagement with me in my role as the Fine Gael spokesperson on mental health. I welcome our visitors to the Public Gallery.

As we mark World Mental Health Day 2025, the message could not be clearer. It is access saves lives. This year's global theme is access to services. Mental health in catastrophes and emergencies carries particular weight here and indeed in Galway because for too many people in Ireland the catastrophe is never too far away and it is happening every day in the corridors of our emergency departments. I have raised the issue in the Chamber previously. When a person in acute psychological distress reaches the point of seeking help and the first and often the only option is to present to accident and emergency, they arrive there not with a broken bone or a visible wound, as was mentioned earlier, but with unbearable emotional pain. What they need and want is a system that is designed to receive them. They sometimes sit for hours, sometimes overnight in crowded waiting rooms. They are triaged, assessed and left to wait again, often in surroundings with noise, distress and lack of privacy in many instances. Some leave before being seen. Some do not make it back. Every time this happens it suggests our system has failed a family, another community and another future.

As was mentioned, we would never ask a heart attack patient to sit in the waiting room of a hospital while their condition worsens, yet we do that every day to people in the throes of a mental health crisis. This is not compassion, this is not care and it is not sustainable. It is time we created a separate, direct and dignified pathway for individuals presenting in mental health crisis, one that allows immediate referral to access the psychiatric and psychological team, bypassing the standard accident and emergency route. This is not a luxury but an urgent reform rooted in basic humanity and common sense. We already have strong models within our healthcare system, including liaison psychiatric teams, crisis cafés, 24-7 helplines and community response hubs. However, they are somewhat fragmented, inconsistent and in many cases inaccessible. We need a national standard, a standard integrated crisis pathway that ensures no one in mental distress is left behind in a waiting room.

When we talk about crisis, we must also talk about our children. Pieta House recently shared a heartbreaking reminder that one in three people, which is a high statistic, under the age of 18 who turns to it for help is only in primary school. A case like Orla, who was just 11 years old, told her therapist she did not want to be here anymore. These are not isolated cases. They are cries for help from children who feel unseen, unheard, or burdensome. They are children who need understanding, not silence. No parent should ever have to hear those words from their child. No child should ever believe that their family would be better off without them. That is why accessible, early and compassionate intervention must be at the core of every form of delivery.

Most recently, the heartbreaking loss of Adam Loughnane, a 34 year old man from County Galway who tragically died by suicide after presenting himself at University College Hospital Galway, reminds us all that behind every policy delay a real human life exists. In Adam's case, he was described as a gentle soul, a man who sought help, who did what we tell people to do, to reach out, go to your hospital, ask for support. His death has rightly prompted a hospital review. However, it must also prompt national reflection and reform. No person should ever walk into an Irish hospital seeking help and leave feeling unseen, unheard or unsupported.

Behind every statistic is a family holding its breath, a parent who does not sleep, friends who blame themselves, a child wondering why help did not come. As someone who has walked alongside families in my constituency of Galway East, I have seen the human cost of delay, disconnection and neglect. Mental healthcare is not an optional add-on to our health services. It is a moral obligation. The men and women who present, in distress, at accident and emergency departments are not numbers on a page. They are our neighbours, colleagues, children and parents. They deserve to be met, not with confusion or queries but with understanding, expertise and hope.

On this World Mental Health Day, I call again - and I know my call will be heard - on the Minister and the HSE to establish a dedicated national crisis response pathway for mental health with trained staff, designated spaces and seamless referral to psychiatric care. When a person reaches out for help, that moment is sacred. It may be the first, but it may also be the last attempt to live. We have a duty as legislators and leaders to follow human beings and make sure the hand they reach out to is there to hold them, not to make them wait.

Like the Minister of State, I come to the table with lived experience. Tragically, we lost our son and close friends of our son, in what was felt by me to be a crisis year. It was 2010. The figures at the time were escalating to somewhere around 500 people per year. Perhaps because of what I, others and support organisations have done over the years in offering advice, support and help - I commend all the people who did that because they have provided remarkable service - as the Minister of State mentioned, there has a welcome reduction in the number of people losing their lives by suicide. We have a lot more to do in that regard, but I am heartened and pleased that we have looked at the best pathway forward.

I want to continue to support the Minister of State in respect of this matter. I thank her for taking these statements today. Many of us have lived experience. Sometimes the story is told with a very heavy heart, but it is important that we allow people to understand the heartbreak, torment and loss that goes with losing a child or a number of people in a community. Sometimes we might look back and say it was avoidable. In this instance, all we can do is look forward to a stronger and better system.

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