Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy John Moloney. From my experience of him in the past seven years, I agree with Senator Buttimer. He is a man of action and will want to see the same. I am sure he will not be patient. I offer my best wishes to Deputy Moloney, his wife, Trish, and their children and I hope he may have every success in this position and be happy in doing the very important job the Taoiseach gave him.

I express my sincere gratitude to Senators Norris, de Búrca and Boyle for offering me the opportunity to speak this evening about the mental health involuntary procedures amendment and about the status of mental health services in Ireland. I listened to the Minister of State's very passionate speech in which he mentioned the personal circumstances of his father and spoke of his commitment to make changes. I wish to let Senator Cannon know that although I was not here I was listening. I listen more often when I am not here. Many people would have heard the speech this evening.

The amendment in question relates to electroconvulsive therapy and how it should not be exercised without informed consent, in writing, from the patient. Sections 58 and 59 of this Bill might have led to appalling consequences had they not been highlighted by the Green Party. In A Vision for Change, the Government's expert policy group document of 2006, section 56 (61) provides definitions and guidance on consent, treatment without consent, psychosurgery, electroconvulsive therapy and consent where medication is given for a continuous period of three months.

Every human being, whether born with a physical disability, a mental disability, depression or whatever, is entitled to have aspirations and dreams like the rest of us and is entitled to have the facility to fulfil those dreams. If people are over-prescribed with medication or with electroconvulsive therapy or psychosurgery, this cannot happen. I have seen this occur with two people who were treated with medication. One is a genius but has never been able to utilise her brilliance because of being over-prescribed.

Like the Minister of State, I am a very impatient person and I like action. In his speech he noted that in recent years there have been significant and very welcome developments within mental health services in Ireland, with the launch of A Vision for Change and the report of the expert group on mental health policy in January 2006.

I am sure that Deputy Moloney is up to date on the matter but I shall read from the annual report of the Mental Health Commission, published in May 2008 which states:

Great hopes were expressed in 2007 that the recommendations of A Vision for Change, the national Government policy on mental health, would be addressed in 2007. While acknowledging that A Vision for Change involves a seven to ten year programme of change and development, the Mental Health Commission was disappointed and concerned at the absence of progress in 2007. The Commission highlighted child and adolescent mental health services as an area requiring special attention.

The Minister of State does not need me to tell him — I am sure he already knows — that there are 3,000 children in this country who are waiting to get assessment by a psychiatrist in the public sector. If one has money one can meet a psychiatrist the next day or whenever but there are 3,000 children out there waiting to be treated, with up to two years waiting time. Approximately 300 children are being treated in adult psychiatric wards. The Minister of State knows that, in a week or two, I will have completed my document on suicide prevention, which I have been researching for the past year. It is shocking, horrific and frightening that there are children in economically deprived families who cannot obtain psychiatric help. Every person in this State is born with the right to treatment. The Minister of State knows this and did not receive his brief cold. For the past six years, he was a very successful Chairman of the Joint Committee on Health and Children. He will not have a slow learning curve and is in the middle of the action. He wants to make changes in the health service.

The recommendations are crying out for implementation. A Vision for Change, the report of the expert group on mental health policy, is lying on a shelf and has not been granted funding. I produced a report on child care, ageing and ageism and noted there were hundreds of reports on shelves in respect of both child care and ageing. The same applies to the subject of mental health. We want delivery.

When the Government receives a report, changes should be made automatically. The Minister of State is as passionate as the rest of us about making these changes and delivering on the recommendations contained in A Vision for Change. Dr. John Hillery spoke at the conference I organised on suicide prevention in Citywest Hotel in February and asked me to try to convince the authorities to put in place funding to make the recommendations in the document a reality.

I wish the Minister of State the best of luck. At the end of his stewardship in his current portfolio, he will want to be able to say to himself and all of us that he made actual changes in the area of mental health. I know he will.