John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support comments made by Senator Marc MacSharry, Senator Jillian van Turnhout and others on newspaper reports of a proposed reduction in the €35 million ring-fenced this year for mental health services. The same amount was ring-fenced last year but I understand why that money was not fully spent because it takes time to roll out and put in place the structures under which staff can be recruited. However, it is totally unacceptable this year. Will the Leader ask the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, to come to the House today or at least to issue a clarifying statement on this issue?

I have worked for the past 30 years in mental health services and it is with dispiriting regularity that the minute health budgets come under pressure, the first cutbacks are always targeted at mental health services. It is always said in the profession that we are the poor cousins of the health services. If this cut is true, it is a step too far and one that I will not support. The Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, should clarify it as a matter of urgency.

I wish to comment on a further newspaper report at the weekend on mental health services. Some nameless editor proposed that the terms of the Fair Deal nursing home scheme be extended to cover mental health and disability. This would be an enormously retrograde step because it is, in effect, saying that if one suffers from a mental illness, one is not on a par with someone who suffers from a physical illness. We have made great strides in reducing the stigma associated with mental illness, although, as I said yesterday, given the recent debate on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, I suspect much of that progress is merely lip-service because some of the ancient and distressing attitudes towards mental illness were latent in many of the arguments made. Will the Leader ask the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, make an urgent statement to clarify whether the €35 million ring-fenced for this year will be protected and whether it is proposed to extend the Fair Deal scheme to cover mental health and disability?