John Gilroy (Labour)

I welcome the Minister. Being here probably makes her rueful and a little nostalgic.

I welcome the report under discussion. As my party colleagues stated, it contains many fine and excellent recommendations. We now wish to see resources put in place that will give expression to those recommendations. I welcome the recommendations warmly, particularly those on mental health, although I have one or two concerns about this area.

The Mental Health Commission recommended in July 2009 that no child under 17 years should be admitted to an adult unit in an approved centre from December 2010. However, between December 2010 and 20 January 2011, five children under the age of 17 years, one of whom was as young as 15, were admitted to adult psychiatric services. The commission says that this is allowed in exceptional circumstances if the approved centre submits a detailed report on the reasons for the admission and on what it is doing to find an age-appropriate centre. If this continues to happen, it will point to a lack of resources in the child and adolescent psychiatric services. At present, there are just 40 inpatient beds provided by the HSE in the entire country. A further 26 are in the private sector, in St. John of God's and St. Patrick's. I understand the HSE has plans to increase this number to 80, although we have no timeframe. I hope the Minister will accord high priority to this area because it is absolutely inappropriate and rather disturbing that we continue to admit children to adult psychiatric services.