Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----because they have had enough and they see patients suffering. There were 50 patients in the psychiatric unit in St. Luke's Hospital last weekend. There are only 44 beds in that unit and six people were accommodated on couches in the television room. That is unacceptable. It is not right for the patient nor for the staff.

I spoke about this issue to a representative of the community health care organisation, CHO, area 5, which is the Carlow-Kilkenny CHO, at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Future of Mental Health Care. I asked what plans they had to put extra beds into the unit, as the Carlow-Kilkenny CHO area has increased as it now also takes in Tipperary. We have fewer beds and more patients.

I was told by the representative of the CHO area 5 that there are no plans to put in extra beds. She told me it would not happen again, it had only happened a few weeks ago, but last weekend the same thing happened. The families concerned feel powerless and see this protest as the only way to get help.

This does not only involve the staff in the hospital in Kilkenny because psychiatric staff in Waterford are also protesting to highlight the lack of resources at their facilities. Michael Hayes of the Psychiatric Nurses Association told my local radio station, KCLR, this morning that the association's members believe that both patient care and staff safety are being comprised.

How can we in 2018 justify that this is happening, that we have psychiatric nurses protesting because patients cannot get the beds and care they need? It is not good enough. Admissions are rising, waiting lists are growing and nobody has the resources to deal with the issue. The HSE needs to be held to account for this. The mental health sector needs money. Mental health is an issue that affects all of us and we need to prioritise it. I will be giving my full support to the psychiatric nurses in Kilkenny and Waterford. The Minister needs to come to this House to address this issue.