David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. It is not the first time that she has attended to discuss this issue. When she was appointed as Minister of State, our debate on mental health was one of our first engagements with her. She outlined her vision of moving from the old-style institutional care to community care settings. I commend her on delivering on some of that vision. I also commend the Labour Senators on tabling this Private Members' motion, as it gives us an opportunity to discuss this important issue. I have one problem with the motion. We did not table an amendment, but I will get to that in a few minutes.

Against a backdrop of continuing recession, the mental health of Ireland's population is under severe strain. Research shows that unemployment and income inequality are major contributing factors to poor mental health and go some way towards explaining the rise in the rates of suicide and self-harm reported in recent years.

I listened to a radio programme in Waterford a number of months ago. A local general practitioner, GP, who is a friend of mine and is active in the field of positive mental health and well being, talked about a tsunami of people attending his clinic suffering all sorts of mental health issues. Obviously, there is some link with the economy.

I am sure the Minister of State agrees that the Government has a duty to protect the vulnerable in society and must ensure that the already negative effects of the economic crisis are not exacerbated by the lack of services for people experiencing poor mental health. Therefore, I welcome today's motion and fully support the call for the continued resourcing of community mental health services, increased staffing levels in suicide prevention services and a strengthening and acceleration of services for children and adolescents.

The first part of the motion is self-congratulatory in its language and tone, which does not sit with some of the Government's commitments in the programme for Government to patient-centred mental health services. I must point out some of the differences and failures. The programme contained a commitment to "vastly improving access to modern mental health services in the community" in line with the recommendations of the mental health policy, A Vision for Change. A further commitment was given to ring-fence €35 million annually for the development of community mental health services. This has been cut by €15 million, yet the motion states: "the Government's commitment to invest €20 million in community-based, patient-centred mental health services in Budget 2014." The reality, as outlined by the campaign group Mental Health Reform, is that few appointments have been made since 2012 to staff community mental health teams. In recent correspondence to my colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, who is our national health spokesperson, the HSE confirmed that, of the 477 posts allocated in 2013, as and from 30 September - unless there has been a change, in which case the Minister of State might give the House the information if she has it - the recruitment process had only been completed for 4% of those posts. In the context of a gap of more than 1,500 staff in community mental health services, there is an urgent need to fulfil the promised investment.