Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mental Health Week is kicking off today with events throughout the country. This morning, I attended the Oireachtas health and well-being team's information and coffee morning. The team will roll out events for Members and staff. I urge everyone to attend when information on them is put up on the Plinth website.

It is concerning that, during world mental health week, the Government failed to deliver extra services in the budget to address the mental health crisis. Two thirds of the announced increase of €39 million for next year will go towards pay increases and do nothing to provide for the 2,500 children waiting for child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, or other rehabilitative services. The post of national director of mental health is missing; it was allowed to vanish into the ether. We need it back so that our services can be co-ordinated and someone can speak at national level for the well-being of our population.

I will relay details of something I encountered last week. A woman of 27 years of age had been discharged from the Coombe Hospital with a four week old baby. Fair play to the hospital, which kept them for an extra two weeks. She was discharged to a hostel because, while she was in hospital receiving care, her landlord had sold apartment in which she had been living. The hostel cannot be accessed until after 9 p.m. and people must leave at 7 a.m. This is what our young mothers are experiencing. I was struck by her story. I commend the mental health services of every maternity hospital. Once I reached out to them, they reached out to her. Hopefully, she will find somewhere soon. She has a young infant in a hostel - I will not mention all of the other issues that arise at hostels - that she cannot access until 9 p.m. She is waiting to go back to work in February but has no home at the moment.