Mary Moran (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and congratulate her on the excellent work she has done to date. I look forward to working with her on mental health issues. I have a particular interest in this area because I am the parent of a child with a moderate intellectual disability. At this stage, I am well qualified to speak about the lack of services in mental health and disability.

In order to highlight where change is needed, I shall share the experiences of two of my constituents, who are also good friends. These individuals have suffered greatly from the lack of services in this country. Over the past two years, a young friend of mine attended her GP on at least 20 occasions. We say that we would spend our last penny to make our children better but most families also have to take account of money. At €50 per visit, 20 trips to the GP is a significant expense. At each visit, the girl in question was prescribed anti-depressants either in the form of increased dosage or different medication. As she did not make progress, she was referred to a psychologist who saw her twice at a cost of €80 per session before referring her back to the GP. After asking for help every single day, she was eventually referred to a psychiatrist who saw her three times. The initial consultation cost €300 and the remaining two were €180. Despite these visits, the patient made no improvement and she begged to be admitted to hospital. On one occasion, she told me that if she was a dog in pain something would be done to help her and she asked if anyone could help her. Coming from a 19 year old child, this is atrocious.