Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State. The gatherings outside Leinster House remind me of the monster gatherings of Daniel O'Connell, when he called a quarter of a million people to the Hill of Tara. When the Minister of State spoke in Westland Row, it was not personal.

The Mental Health Commission Annual Report for 2007 has just been published. It highlighted child and adolescent mental health services as an area requiring special attention. The Council of Europe report by the Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Hammarberg, on his visit to Ireland in November 2007 stated, "Placing children who are in need of psychiatric treatment in adult facilities is in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child". In 2007 193 children aged between 13 and 17 were admitted to adult psychiatric services. The majority were aged 17.

In regard to my policy document, What We Can Do About Suicide In The New Ireland, Mr. Hammarberg's report states, "There appears to be significant gaps in community based care and access to services for those at risk of self-harm, including children". The Children's Rights Alliance has raised concerns about child and adolescent psychiatric service being underdeveloped and under-funded. As a result, children and adolescents continue to be treated through adult services and have to endure long waiting periods, sometimes three to five years, for assessment.

The Irish Prison Chaplain's annual report 2006-2007 refers to 3,000 children on waiting lists for assessment, and 300 children treated each year in adult psychiatric services. It is frightening to think of little children, some of whom are suicidal, who need psychiatric help and cannot get it. It is cruel.

The Ombudsman for Children, Ms Emily Logan, has called on the Government to implement its mental health policy, A Vision for Change, with a particular focus on children. This would entail the extension of current social services provided to children and families at risk to a seven day, 24 hour service. I have raised this issue on other occasions. There are 113,000 people working in the HSE, which has an annual budget of €14.5 billion. I fail to understand how they cannot provide a 24 hour service; it is beyond me.

Children up to 18 years comprise a quarter of the population of Ireland. The majority of children do not develop mental health problems, but at any point approximately 2% of children require specialist mental health expertise. I recommended a businesslike approach by the different regional directors of the HSE to put in place a strategy in their own areas to reduce the list of children who need psychiatric services, and to show how they could reduce the list to zero.

I also recommend that the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Barry Andrews, takes responsibility for ensuring the different arms of the State deliver on providing acceptable out-patient and in-patient psychiatric services for children and adolescents. He monitors the implementation of the National Children's Strategy. If I had anything to do with that, I would have the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews take responsibility at the Cabinet for reducing the lists——