Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

Roisin Ingle's first two sentences on the front page of The Irish Times this morning are revealingly chilling and I am sure for many they were overwhelming. Everyone who read them will have been hugely moved by them:

At 3.25 p.m. yesterday, with the sun beating down on a packed Guildhall Square in Derry, a pair of hands poked through the metal grille covering the windows high up in the building. They gave the thumbs-up sign to loud cheers from thousands of locals gathered below.

That marked the arrival of public vindication, the acknowledgement and recognition for the relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday in January 1972. As we know, they had waited too long and had to fight too hard. I welcome the heartfelt and much welcomed statement of the British Prime Minister yesterday. I asked yesterday for a debate on the report which for many families in Northern Ireland and wider society was a long time coming. As the banners on the streets of Derry read yesterday, "Set the truth free." We all welcome the Saville report and its findings.

In its report the Mental Health Commission referred to the inhumane conditions in psychiatric hospitals and mental health facilities in 2010. We have all been horrified by what we read about institutions in the Ryan and Murphy reports. Irish society was appalled last year when we saw documented what individual children had gone through in these institutions. It is extraordinary that we have institutions that are totally unfit for purpose. So unfit for purpose are at least three adult psychiatric hospitals that today the Mental Health Commission indicated they should not take in new patients from January and February next year. They should not take in new patients from today. The question is: what has been happening to our mental health services? Why did they not receive priority during the Celtic tiger years? What will happen now that resources are more limited?

How can we, as Senators, try to give greater priority to dealing with mental health issues? There is no doubt mental health services have been the Cinderella of the health service. Many Senators on both sides of the House have spoken about the issue on a number of occasions. We must use our collective will to ensure action is taken. The Minister has the blueprint. What the Mental Health Commission states today is that this issue is still not receiving priority and that there is no clarity on the funding mechanisms to be used, despite all the promises and good intentions of the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney. I accept he is well intentioned and wants to achieve change, but he will not witness that change, unless he has momentum behind him. This House could help him in that regard. I ask the Leader to arrange another all-day debate on mental health services before the end of this Seanad term to bring momentum to the debate and secure political action in order that people will not face the kind of services we were ashamed to reveal were prevalent 50 and 100 years ago. They cannot be allowed to continue. We must do something now.