Evanne Ní Chuilinn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When I first spoke in this House, I raised dual diagnosis and how I wanted to increase awareness of it and highlight it further in the coming weeks and months. Since then, I have had some conversations with healthcare workers on an ad hoc basis. A particular healthcare worker got in touch with me to say that, in her community, there was a plan and some funding in place to have a clinical nurse specialist dealing specifically in dual diagnosis. When she was ready to go for the job and had the qualifications for it, the funding was pulled. It is something I want to look into. We should have funding available for clinical nurse specialists, especially in dual diagnosis, in communities countrywide. There is a misconception sometimes that this is an urban problem, a city problem and a Dublin problem, but it is not. There are issues with mental health and addiction in communities all over Ireland and we must look at how we can fund clinical nurse specialist positions. There are people who want to do these jobs, are qualified to do them and want to help people but they are sitting and waiting. I would like the Minister to be invited in for a discussion on that topic.

Also on dual diagnosis, we lose many people to suicide, unfortunately. It happened in my family. I lost my brother. Today, tomorrow and on Sunday, which is Mother's Day, I think of the mothers who have lost their children to suicide.