Joan Freeman (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is déjà vu- I have been here before and asked the same questions. I find it a little bit upsetting that the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, is not here because all the requests I have made to meet her have been completely ignored. She promised to set up a meeting but she has not done any of it.

I will tell the Minister of State in a nutshell what the problem is. I launched a project called Project 95 to address the fact that 95 children were placed into adult psychiatric units in 2015. The traumatic effect it has on children is astounding. One can imagine how upsetting it is for a child to be placed in an ordinary ward for physical health but imagine what it must be like in an adult psychiatric ward. The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, is well aware of this. We have spoken at length about it on many occasions. It is no good to just highlight the issue. The media have highlighted it every single year. I have come up with a solution yet the Minister of State continues to ignore it. The solution is to have a collaborative working relationship between the public and private sectors. The private sector has beds available. It has psychiatric intensive care units, PICUs, for children who are in terrible distress and they are available at weekends. The public sector does not have anything. All it would take is a series of conversations between the public and private sector. It would reduce overnight the number of those 95 children who have to be placed into adult psychiatric units and it would also reduce the 2,500 children who are waiting to be seen and assessed by the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. They cannot be seen and assisted by CAMHS mainly because those services do not have the personnel to do it because they are overwhelmed with the numbers. The private sector could jump in on a short-term basis and provide assessments. Most of those children do not need CAMHS; they need to be redirected to somewhere like Pieta House or Barnardos or one of those other organisations.The Minister of State still refuses to consider the issue. What is tragic is she and her Department are completely ignoring the fact there are children on that waiting list with life-threatening issues. They are either starving to death because they are anorexic or they have strong suicidal ideation. For example, there were three young people who killed themselves just before Christmas in Cork. It has been suggested that if there was an out-of-hours service, they would still be alive today. Can the Minister of State imagine not only the Christmas those families experienced but what the year ahead will be like for them?

There is another issue I want to address with the Minister of State. I wonder how much of this will get to her ears and if she will address us. I know the Minister of State in the Chamber today is listening but will the Minister of State with responsibility for this issue listen? I publicly asked about allocation of funding the last time she was in the Chamber. How was the money spent? There is €35 million every year meant to be given to A Vision for Change so how was that spent last year? More importantly, during the budget the Government indicated there is another €35 million for A Vision for Change but very quietly it was let out that it would come over two years. There is €15 million for this year. As I stated to the Minister of State at the time, that will act as a stop-gap or contingency fund for the inadequacies of the budget but it will not go for any direct support or services. Where and how will the €15 million be allocated?

Last year I had to publicly go with the 95 Project and ask the public to be aware of the chronic and disgraceful treatment of the children of this nation. I was recently advised that I am not angry enough or my tone is not angry enough.