Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to schedule time for a debate on adult mental health services. I raised the issue last week when I used the example of the Curam clinic in Swords in north County Dublin which I visited on 16 November. There are strong rumours abounding that there will be a 10% cut in the budget for adult mental health services. While there is no question but that the Government has tough choices to make we were promised an open and transparent budgetary process. It is important, in advance of the budget, that we have a discussion on our priorities.

In Curam 450 people with mental health issues are being counselled. They have been moved out of their offices and shoehorned into the back of a HSE office which has no facilities. For the past four weeks there has been no telephone access for any client who wishes to ring up to ascertain what facilities are available in the whole north County Dublin area. There are no proper nursing facilities and no counselling facilities. It is an absolute outrage in the constituency of the Minister for Health. In broader terms, there is a need for a proper discussion on mental health services and adult mental health services. Rightly so, the issue of suicide is raised regularly in the House and I agree with every contribution that has been made. We have to see what is important in these straitened times and where our resources should go. A proper reasoned debate on that issue is required.

As I have done every week for the past eight weeks, I ask where the Government stands on the issue of home help services and home help funding. As everybody is aware home help services were reduced by 500,000 hours earlier in the year, and a further 450,000 hours are being cut by the Government to save ¤8 million. This is contrary to promises given by Fine Gael and the Labour Party prior to the election that not only would the Government retain home help services it would expand them. That was further restated in the programme for Government.

In our alternative budget proposal that is fully costed, Fianna Fáil has shown how the cuts can be reversed, yet still achieving the ¤3.5 billion adjustment needed while protecting mental health services, home helps and carers, and ring-fencing education. Because I am not getting answers from Government, I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Health should come to the House and confirm to us what is happening to home help services. Will the Government reverse the cuts totalling 950,000 hours it implemented this year? Will the Government give a commitment not to make further cuts in the home help service next year? It is a false economy.

As many colleagues on the Government side have pointed out, the assessments being carried out are not being done case by case but are being applied across the board. Our elderly and infirm, who deserve to be looked after at home, will end up in hospitals. Most people agree that, if possible, they should be looked after at home to allow them retain their dignity and independence. These people have had their hours slashed. Despite raising the issue repeatedly, I have not received an answer from Government as to the current position. Therefore, I am tabling an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Health should come to the House and reaffirm the Government's commitment in the programme for Government that there would be no cuts to home help services.