Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to address the issue raised by Senator Catherine Ardagh who I know is genuine in her approach to home help hours. I have been dealing with home help hours for a long time. Between 31 August 2009 and 31 August 2010, Fianna Fáil cut 32,000 hours of home help from very vulnerable people in Mayo. Fine Gael when in government went on to cut 9,000 hours from people in Mayo. In addition it told elderly people that they were not even worth one hour, that it had to be 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 45 minutes. In view of this I find it difficult to hear such people calling for increases in home help hours given what they did and in spite of us begging them not to so that people could stay in their own homes. I had a case in Westport of a 99 year old man who was getting three hours home help per week. His home help hours were cut to two hours per week. As he was 99 years old it was not going to be long-term care. I cannot let that pass without putting on record the facts around home help and the savage cuts made under the Fianna Fáil-led Government and continued, albeit to a lesser extent, under the Fine Gael-led Government.

I wish to speak about Console. We are aware of the dreadful facts as they emerge in regard to the improper behaviour at Console. Apart from the understandable disgust felt at the actions of a few, there is a concern with regard to the viability of the charity and the services it provides. The Government has tactically admitted that charities such as Console exist in the first place to make up for the shortage of services. We have to remember that charities such as Console are filling in gaps in essential services, often life saving services, that should be put in place by Government. In this context I call for time to be set aside for the relevant Minister to attend the House to discuss specifically the strategic view of the mental health commission which set out a new strategy for mental health for 2016 to 2018 and to review the progress made in A Vision for Change.

I am aware that we have had statements on mental health in the House but I believe that a focused debate on the progress made since the report was published in late June, on the allocation of funding, would be helpful. We could also discuss the delay in making legislative changes to the Mental Health Act 2001, as signalled in the review carried out in December 2014. I am calling for a debate which would be centred on the positive measures that can be adopted and which, hopefully, will reassure the public which unfortunately has had to rely heavily on organisations such as Console. I wish to convey our solidarity and thoughts to the staff of Console who have worked very hard, and continue to do so, under very difficult circumstances and also to the many people whose lives depend on Console. They must be to the forefront of our minds at all times and we must ensure that whatever emergency measures are needed are put in place to ensure the service is continued to those people.

I refer to the wonderful briefing given this morning by my colleague Senator Frances Black and others from the Alcohol Health Alliance on alcohol and its impact on children. The issue is one on which we in the Seanad can work and in this regard can support the public health (alcohol) Bill. I look forward to that Bill coming before the House and the Seanad doing everything it can to address the impact of alcohol not only on adults but on children. Also there is a role for the Seanad in terms of the online advertising of alcohol which is particularly targeted at children.