Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I was driving to Dublin today, I listened with interest and immense sadness to a report on RTE Radio 1 regarding people who were suicidal or who had attempted suicide having difficulty accessing appropriate psychiatric services, especially in out-of-hours times. The programme outlined cases of people in these situations who had presented to emergency departments of their local hospital as recommended on the HSE website.They were triaged by a nurse on duty and in many cases had only a telephone conversation with a consultant psychiatrist before being discharged as medically fit. Once discharged some of these people went on to commit suicide. This is not a new issue and indeed it is one I raised here in February with the then Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Deputy McEntee. The discussion on the radio today was particularly timely because I received a call yesterday from a family in a similar situation. A girl in her early 20s who attempted suicide several weeks ago, had a violent outburst towards her parents on Friday night and was taken by ambulance at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning to a local psychiatric hospital, spent the day there and was discharged and sent home in a taxi at 10 p.m. on Saturday, some 17 hours later.

If I or anybody else presented at the emergency department on a Friday evening with cardiac arrest, a brain haemorrhage, a stroke or any other severe physical illness and had been discharged and subsequently died, people would rightfully ask questions. Why should it be any different for a person presenting with severe mental health issues?

We know that every community in Ireland is affected by suicide and self-harm and that the emotional turmoil associated with such ideation does not confine itself to out-of-hours' times. Nobody suicidal should ever be turned away. Will the Leader please ask the new Minister of State with responsibility for mental health to come to the Chamber and have a debate and hear comments from the Senators with regard to specific steps that can be taken to fix the problems associated with access to help, especially out-of-hours?