Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)

Tomorrow marks World Mental Health Day, a moment to pause and reflect on our nation’s mental well-being. I welcome the Government’s sustained commitment to improving mental health services right across the country. Next year, the total allocation for mental health will reach €1.6 billion, representing an increase of more than 50% since 2020. This is a remarkable achievement and a reflection of consistent, deliberate investment in the well-being of our people. It means more psychologists, counsellors, nurses and psychiatrists and more accessible care for those who need it most. I commend my colleague, the Minister of State responsible for mental health, for her determination to ensure this funding translates into genuine, measurable change on the ground in crisis care, early intervention and community-based supports.

The plan to add 300 new whole-time equivalent staff next year, representing 9% growth in the mental health workforce by 2026, is another major step forward. New crisis-resolution teams, Solace cafés, SCAN nurses to support GPs, targeted suicide-prevention initiatives for Travellers, expanded CAMHS capacity, new Jigsaw services and the implementation of a digital mental health strategy are the building blocks of a stronger, more compassionate and more modern mental health service.

I welcome in particular two initiatives in which the Minister of State has been involved. The first is accessibility to specialist nursing in emergency departments, where people in distress must face long waiting times before seeing a hard-pressed junior doctor or where they lack access to a consultant. That is a major initiative. Also, there is the men’s online counselling initiative, for which the Minister of State allocated €2 million. It began in September and will allow men, in particular, who are slow to seek psychological help, to access counselling in their own homes without having to attend a centre.

Closer to home, there is very good news for Roscommon and the wider west. HSE West and North West has plans for a new 50-bed replacement psychiatric unit at Roscommon University Hospital. It is to be a modern, purpose-built facility that will replace the existing unit. This is a major and long-awaited development for patients, families and staff throughout the region. A multistorey car park is part of the development and this will finally ease the parking pressure at the hospital and make access safer and more convenient for everyone. This investment will not only provide a better environment for patient care, it will also help make Roscommon University Hospital a more attractive place for staff to work.

We face genuine challenges in recruiting and retaining consultant psychiatrists and high-quality specialist staff in rural areas. Too often, smaller hospitals lose out to larger urban centres, not because the work is less meaningful but because the infrastructure and supports cannot compete with those in the larger centres. That must change if we are to be serious about an equitable mental health service nationwide.

We must make our regional hospitals places of professional excellence, with strong multidisciplinary teams, modern facilities and clear opportunities for clinical and career advancement.

As a practising GP, I see daily the profound human consequences of our modern pressures on mental well-being. The levels of anxiety, low mood and burnout presenting in general practice have risen dramatically over the last two decades, and I believe we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. What once might have been considered occasional stress and sadness is now, for many, a persistent sense of being overwhelmed. Capacity in general practice is also a major issue, with a growth in population, the need to deal with additional cultural complexity and more complex chronic medical illness care being provided in the community. That can impact urgent access where there is a mental health crisis. This is why those other pathways that have been provided are so important.

The use of antidepressants and antianxiety medication has grown exponentially in this time. Between 2012 and 2022, the use of antidepressant medications more than doubled among children and young people. Among those aged 75 and older, prescriptions have increased by over 50% in a decade, with this group now accounting for nearly a quarter of all antidepressant use. Across Europe, the pattern is the same. Consumption of these medications has more than doubled since 2000, reflecting a wider and deeper tide of psychological distress.

Let me be absolutely clear that these medicines work. They help people and save lives. They are essential in helping people to recover from depression and anxiety and they allow countless individuals to function, work, parent and rediscover hope in their lives. The scale of their use, though, tells us something important, namely, that far too many people are reaching a point where medication feels like the only lifeline available. This is not a criticism of medical care or of the patients who need these treatments. It is a reflection of the world we live in, which is faster, noisier, lonelier and more digitally demanding than ever before. We are witnessing an epidemic not just of illness but of disconnection from community and purpose.

That disconnection is being accelerated by forces we have yet to fully control. Artificial intelligence is now present in nearly every aspect of young people's lives. From homework help to late night conversations, AI chatbots have become constant companions, yet regulation has not kept pace. Earlier this year, Meta quietly integrated its AI assistant into WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, reaching roughly 3 million Irish users, including an estimated 300,000 children without parental consent, warning or opt out. CyberSafeKids reports that a quarter of eight-year-olds to 12-year-olds and more than a third of 12-year-olds to 15-year-olds are now actively using AI chatbots, not just to gather information but to chat, seek comfort and pass the time. These systems are not designed to nurture well-being. They are built to capture attention, mimic emotional intimacy, create dependency and keep young users engaged for profit. We are already seeing troubling reports from abroad of AI bots engaging vulnerable users in harmful and sexualised conversations, even encouraging self-destructive behaviour. The idea promoted by some in the tech world that chatbots might one day replace therapists or solve loneliness is a dangerous proposition. Artificial intelligence does not understand context or conscience and it cannot detect despair or respond with genuine empathy. It can only mirror what it is fed, sometimes amplifying it in deeply damaging ways.

Ireland faces some of the highest levels of loneliness in Europe. One in three individuals shows patterns of social media addiction. Combine this with the rise of anxiety and depression and the surge in prescription medications and it is clear we are living through a profound mental health challenge. It is one that cannot be solved by algorithms or quick fixes. This is why Ireland must play a leading role in ensuring AI is safe by design, transparent in purpose and accountable in impact. The forthcoming EU AI Act provides an important opportunity, but national implementation will be key, particularly when it comes to protecting children and young people. Platforms that profit from emotional manipulation must be held to account. Child safety cannot be an afterthought or a marketing slogan. It must be a legal and ethical obligation.

As we approach World Mental Health Day and as we welcome historic levels of investment - €1.6 billion for mental health in 2026 - and hundreds of new staff, new crisis supports, new digital pathways and new facilities, like the 50-bed unit at Roscommon, let us also recognise that no system of care, however well funded, can flourish in a society that is becoming emotionally disconnected. Our task is twofold: to build services that respond to illness with compassion and skill and to build a culture that sustains well-being before illness takes hold. This means investing not only in clinicians and infrastructure but also in communities, education and the digital environment in which our young people now live their lives. Mental health is not merely the absence of disease but the presence of connection, meaning and hope. If we lose those, then no amount of medication or innovation will be enough. Let Ireland be the country that combines compassion with foresight, embraces technology, but never at the expense of our humanity, and ensures progress always serves the people and not the other way around. Go raibh míle maith agat.

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