Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and her daughter to the Chamber.

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who has become a regular visitor, is very welcome to the House. I know this particular issue is of great interest to you, a Chathaoirligh, given the locality involved. What happened should not have happened, but it did happen. It is not about what happened but about how it is dealt with. Once the system became aware of it, it put the necessary procedures in place to deal with it. We need stronger and more robust checks and balances in the system. There needs to be auditing and constant oversight, access and accountability. Proper auditing, oversight and accountability will not prevent it happening in its entirety because there will always be situations where something like this can happen, but when it happens it must be identified quickly and dealt with promptly. That is what we need to see happening because we have had too many examples with the Brandon report into what happened in Donegal along with what is happening in Kerry.I am sure there have been other pockets around the country. However, that cannot take from the good work done by the services when people access them and the many people who have been helped and supported by the services. The problem is there are not enough services and positions have been left vacant. There has to be a completely renewed commitment to dealing with this. The Minister of State is well able to fight her corner within Government in terms of getting resources. These and more resources are needed. The resources have to be wisely spent in such a way that delivers the results we all want.

I am on the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health, which is chaired by our colleague Senator Black. That committee has been engaging with stakeholders for the past year and a half. These are people who are very much at the coalface: people who use the services, people who provide the services, as well as people who work within the services, in the HSE, the voluntary groups and the different angles. In listening in detail to their presentations, some of the solutions are very straightforward and simple. I always ask all the groups that come before the committee if they know where there is international best practice. Where can we copy and look at building our system around that? There has never been a universal answer. It has always been that there is good and bad everywhere. It is hard to pull the good from everywhere to try to create a system here. The system here is good if it is properly resourced and built on properly. We need to start having conversations about mental health with young people in primary school - the early years. It was a taboo subject 20, 30 years ago but it is not anymore and it should not be. The more open we are in the conversations we have with young people, the better we will equip them in dealing with it going forward.

Senator Keogan made a strong point about the transitional period, where someone who is one month under 18 years old can access all the youth supports and services, but when he or she is one day over 18 years, he or she cannot access these services. We need to look at a transitional approach where if someone who is over 18 years can benefit from the services offered to those under 18 years, we do not just shut that service off and expect that person to go into an adult service. Senator Ruane had an interesting group of people in the audiovisual room yesterday, and that was the common thread that came through their experiences, the issue around those turning 18. These were people who were in care, left it, and have been lucky enough to rebuild their lives and have fruitful and successful lives. Some work might need to be done on how best we can deal with that, because it is not like flicking a light switch. It does not and should not work like that. We have to ensure everything is gradual and phased.

In terms of resources, we can never spend enough money equipping this area of our health system. Whatever moneys you get, you will never have enough. We are building on a system that was underinvested for decades. When we are trying to do that in as quick a time as possible, it is not easy and it is certainly challenging. What happened in Kerry was terrible. I am glad the support structures are being put in place to deal with that, but I want to see lessons learned in terms of accountability, oversight, proper auditing, and ensuring we have the proper checks and balances in place to protect the most vulnerable in society, whom we all want to protect.