Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will talk about mental health services and the lack of any facilities or plans in the area. To listen to Senator Freeman this morning, one would think we had it planned but we have nothing planned. I will talk about mental health in Ireland in 2018. There are very few proper facilities. Family members, young and old, have to go to Northern Ireland or England to get proper facilities. At second level, children with mental health issues are being prescribed drugs. If they are not willing or if parents do not want their kids to take these drugs they are told to take them out of school and educate them at home. That is the status of mental health services in Ireland in 2018. Last Christmas in my constituency of Meath West, we had family members on the banks of the Boyne and Blackwater rivers waiting to hear news of family members who had disappeared. The other night I lost a friend with mental health issues; it was sad to see Colin suffer over the past few months. The services did absolutely nothing. We have put €30 million to €40 million into mental health services in the past two years in two budgets but it has gone past the day of prescribing medicines and drugs and letting people back out on the streets, saying "There you go, you're all right now, off you go." We need proper facilities. We need a plan. Perhaps in certain cases we have to look at the way it was done years ago. I do not think letting people with mental health issues back out on the streets does them or their families any good. We really have to look at this issue. I would like a discussion in the House and to bring in the Minister and look at a plan for the way forward in mental health services in Ireland.