Liam Quaide
Cork East · Social Democrats · Ireland
“The Department is not funding the teams. That is the main issue. There is a stark double standard here. In mainstream CAMHS, multidisciplinary staffing is treated as basic good practice.”
“I already established, earlier this year, that the staffing levels of CAMHS-ID teams across the country are abysmal. These are children and teenagers with very complex needs. They experience major challenges across all aspects of their daily lives, including with communication and learning.”
“I ask about CAMHS-ID services, which are specialist teams for children and adolescents with a moderate to profound intellectual disability and coexisting mental health difficulties. According to the HSE, and by its own admission, no CAMHS-ID team nationally is staffed to the level recommended in its own model of care.”
“This is a particularly vulnerable cohort of young people, and the lack of investment is particularly stark. The Minister of State should not look at me with an expression of incredulity because we have seen this across primary care and in child, adult and older adult mental health services. This is all out in the public domain.”
“Their needs are often more complex than those of young people attending standard CAMHS. I am asking the Minister of State for a clear commitment. When will the Government move beyond small, incremental additions year by year and fully fund CAMHS-ID teams in every region? When will that happen?”
“Worried, anxious, fearful, angry, afraid, powerless, terrified, scared, overwhelmed, abandoned, hopeless. Words like these came up again and again in a survey the Social Democrats conducted in the run-up to this motion.”
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“Any future review of SNA allocations must be grounded in the full breadth of what SNAs actually do in schools, not in a narrow, outdated definition that ignores the relational, regulatory and classroom-wide impact of their work. Once again, we see the same underlying mindset from the Government. Essential front-line staff are viewed primarily as a cost to be contained rather than as an investment in children, families and the functioning of the education system as a whole. When that mindset dominates, what follows is entirely predictable: short-term, politically reactive decisions and crisis management instead of forward-planning. We saw it in the rushed communications to schools, in the confusion over allocations and in the Government scrambling to reassure parents only after public anger became insurmountable and impossible to ignore.”
“They create the conditions in which inclusion works, not just in theory but in practice. Remove that support and the impact is felt across the whole class, not just by the one child. We should also say something clearly about the people doing this work. SNAs are not highly paid for the invaluable work they do every day, which is emotionally demanding, highly skilled relational work. They are poorly rewarded. Yet, despite that, they remain one of the most committed groups in our education system. If the Government is serious about inclusion, then the forthcoming workforce development plan for SNAs cannot be just another review exercise. It must deliver a secure, decent contract structure, proper career progression and the recognition of the full scope of the SNA role.”
“It was based on a fundamentally outdated and narrow understanding of what SNAs actually do. The Government continues to speak about SNAs as if their role is confined to physical care needs, but anyone who has spent time in a modern classroom knows that this bears little resemblance to reality. SNAs support children with emotional regulation and sensory overwhelm. They support communication, participation and belonging in education. They often provide the steady relational presence that allows the child to remain in school at all. Crucially, however, SNAs not only support the individual child with an identified disability or additional need; they support the entire ecosystem of the classroom. Their presence allows teachers to teach. It allows other children to learn without recurring disruption.”
“I commend Sinn Féin on its motion. What we have witnessed in recent weeks on the issue of special needs assistants has been nothing short of a fiasco, one that has caused deep and unnecessary anxiety for families, teachers, principals and SNAs across the country. At its core this episode reveals a Government that still does not understand the daily reality of inclusion in our schools. Instead of planning properly for rising need, the Department of education attempted a crude "robbing Peter to pay Paul" exercise, shifting supports from one school to another as if children's needs were interchangeable and as if relationships, stability and continuity in the classroom did not matter. This was not meaningful, consultation-based workforce planning; it was spreadsheet management.”
“That scheme was cut because the Labour Court ruled in June of last year that it could not recommend further extensions until long Covid was classified by Government as an occupational injury for this cohort. The Taoiseach met a group of these workers in Cork around the time of the Labour Court decision. Would he meet them again to hear how they have been impacted by the termination of their special Covid leave with pay?”
“I want to bring the Taoiseach back once again to that cohort of workers who kept the health service going at our moment of deepest crisis in recent years. I refer to housekeeping staff, porters, nurses, healthcare assistants and other clinicians, some of whom contracted Covid at the height of the pandemic and went on to develop a debilitating condition known as long Covid. A small group of those workers was in receipt of special Covid leave with pay until 31 December. They were receiving that payment on the basis that they contracted the virus in high-risk settings and have been unable to return to work since due to disabling post-exertional malaise and a range of other symptoms.”
“It is now significantly more expensive than home charging and would leave many households paying a permanent premium just to play their part in the transition. That creates a grossly unequal shift to EVs, based on housing circumstances. The recent report from the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, stresses the need for an inclusive transition. When will the Government publish a clear national plan for residential EV charging for households without driveways?”
“A serious structural barrier has emerged in the transition to electric vehicles, EVs, that Government policy is yet to confront. Large numbers of people, particularly those in apartments, terraced houses and rented accommodation, have no driveway and, under current circumstances, they are precluded from installing a home charger. On-street charging schemes remain extremely limited and subject to inconsistent rules across local authorities. In many parts of the country, residents are simply told that no programme exists and installations are not permitted. That lack of flexibility is no longer sustainable if we are serious about EV uptake. Public charging is not a viable substitute for EV owners.”
“Nature-based measures are not a silver bullet to flood risk, but international experience shows they can be very effective around particular settlements. They can often be delivered quickly, at relatively low cost and without the need for planning permission. They are a win-win for people at risk of flooding, farmers and biodiversity. Will Government now ensure that nature-based solutions to flood management are actively advanced alongside structural works, with the ambition, co-ordination and leadership that affected communities need?”
“The urbanisation of our flood plains and the mass removal of native trees and hedgerows in recent decades have drastically reduced our land's ability to hold excess water. Alongside conventional engineering schemes, we need to maximise our potential for nature-based approaches to flood management. There is a clear opportunity here for farmers to be paid a premium for taking measures such as the construction of leaky dams and ponds and the planting of native trees on their land. Cork County Council commissioned a survey into such measures upstream from Midleton in August 2024, raising hope locally that these options would form part of the wider flood response, yet this report has still not been published and there is little sign that this work is being actively pursued.”
“This chaos from the Department follows the recent astonishing decision to shift key elements of identifying special educational needs away from clinicians and towards teachers under the so-called assessment of need reforms, a move made without consultation and which gave rise to bewilderment and uncertainty across the sector. This detached and chaotic educational planning spreadsheet is messing with people's lives. Can the Taoiseach confirm that all the schools that have been told they will lose SNAs will keep them while the process is paused?”
“I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. There is growing alarm and confusion among parents, teachers and special needs assistants across the country after it was revealed that at least 194 schools had been told they would lose SNA posts from September, with further reviews ongoing. In the past hour, we have heard of a backtrack from Government as it came under ferocious public pressure. It appears that the Department was reverting to a crude and narrow interpretation of care needs, restricting SNA access largely to physical supports. As the Taoiseach knows, SNAs support children with a range of needs, such as emotional regulation, attention, communication, participation and belonging in school life. Without that support, many children simply cannot access education or reach their full potential.”
“Nobody is suggesting nature-based solutions are a silver bullet but they are effective with more frequent low-intensity floods and they are an important part of the overall approach.”
“We know these measures have been very successful in settlements such as Pickering in Yorkshire. Their survey did not extend to Mogeely but my understanding is that the experts viewed Mogeely as a potential area where natural flood defences could be deployed relatively quickly at low financial cost and without the need for planning permission. There was buy-in from the local landowner there and a substantial number of houses could have benefitted. The council has, for some unknown reason, kept the nature-based report under wraps since. I requested it last August and did not receive it. It was not even released to me following a freedom of information request in October last year.”
“There was a recent announcement that €108,000 was allocated to Whitegate but this was not for any actual flood works. It was to appoint a specialist to survey the possibility of flood works. How did it take almost two-and-a-half years since Storm Babet to make that appointment? In reply to parliamentary questions, the Minister of State has said there is a shortage of expertise in the country to help direct so-called tranche II projects. What I would like to know is how much efforts has the Minister of State engaged in to hire experts from abroad? All these villages remain in limbo and it is not acceptable. In August 2024 two experts were commissioned by Cork County Council to assess the potential for land use or nature-based solutions upstream from Midleton.”
“It is increasingly baffling how utterly in limbo many east Cork residents are left over two years on from Storm Babet. I want to acknowledge the recent planning approval for a scheme that will protect Tir Cluain estate and some nearby properties in Midleton. I am conscious that the Midleton flood relief scheme is large-scale and very complex and is slowed down by the degree of engagement with landowners that it requires. As much as it should have been completed many years ago, we cannot turn the clock back on that political failure - we are where we are now – but what is really perplexing is the degree of detachment of the Minister of State’s Department from the villages that were also flooded in October 2023, namely, Mogeely, Rathcormac, Castlemartyr, Killeagh, Ladysbridge and Whitegate.”
“It is about ensuring basic medical and psychological care in a system that already costs over €1 billion a year and still fails people egregiously. If the Government is serious about reform, it should start by reinstating the healthcare provisions the justice committee unanimously agreed on. Leaving them out is not efficiency. It is negligence.”
“On fitness to interview, trauma survivors can be prone to dissociation, can avoid disclosure because of fear or shame and can present inconsistently due to their psychological state, yet the Bill does not require that fitness-to-interview decisions be made by clinicians with specialist trauma expertise. That means people can be pushed through interviews they are not psychologically able to participate in, thereby undermining the reliability of the entire process. The Bill creates duties the State is not resourced to meet. It accelerates timelines while hollowing out care. That does not save money; it creates crises, litigation and long-term harm. This is not about adding luxury services to our international protection system.”
“Ireland still has no national preventive mechanism under the optional protocol to the convention against torture. Detention without healthcare standards is not just bad policy and immoral. There are clear legal pitfalls to this. On vulnerability assessments, the Bill relies heavily on preliminary checks at screening but does not require ongoing or repeat assessments. We know that vulnerability is not static. Trauma, pregnancy, disability and mental health needs often emerge later. Psychological states can change over time. Expert bodies have warned repeatedly that preliminary checks cannot replace proper continuing assessments but the Bill ignores that reality.”
“The Bill shortens key decision-making timelines to three and six months but provides no additional capacity for the specialist medico-legal reports required for survivors of torture under the Istanbul Protocol. At present, people are already waiting many months and, in some cases, more than a year for these assessments. Under the new accelerated system, it will be virtually impossible for survivors to secure a compliant report before their first-instance decision is made. That creates a real risk of people being wrongly refused protection. On detention, the Bill expands detention powers but includes no enforceable healthcare standards. There is no guarantee of access to mental health professionals, no requirement for trauma-informed care, no assurance of medication continuity and no medical exemption from detention.”
“His psychological state deteriorated severely and he spent four months in inpatient mental health care at a cost of over €100,000. Four months of medication would have cost around €400. Abrupt discontinuation of psychiatric medication is dangerous and can be profoundly destabilising for the person affected, yet this Bill does nothing to prevent scenarios like this. Short-notice transfers routinely interrupt chemotherapy, maternity care, disability supports and specialist treatment. People are moved with little or no notice and there is no certainty that care will continue at the destination. Along with many other omissions, ambiguities and cruelties, the Bill contains no protections for healthcare continuity during transfers - none.”
“Safetynet Primary Care, a medical charity providing care to marginalised communities, was the only front-line healthcare provider to give evidence to the committee. In 2024 alone, Safetynet screened more than 1,300 international protection applicants and delivered almost 4,000 GP consultations, so its evidence is grounded in daily clinical reality, not theory. On healthcare after deportation orders, once a deportation order issues, people immediately lose access to their medical card and their right to work. The period before removal can last months or even years and, during that time, people lose access to essential medication, such as insulin, psychiatric medication, epilepsy medication and HIV treatment. Safetynet gave a concrete example of a man diagnosed with schizophrenia who lost access to medication.”
“It is about whether Ireland is preparing to legislate for a faster system without first ensuring that people who have fled war, torture, trafficking or other forms of persecution can access basic healthcare, trauma-informed assessment and continuity of treatment. On that test, this Bill falls badly short. The Bill significantly expands mandatory medical, vulnerability and fitness assessments but does so in a system that already cannot meet existing need. During pre-legislative scrutiny, the joint committee on justice unanimously adopted a series of recommendations on healthcare provision for international protection applicants. Not one of those recommendations appears in this Bill. They were not debated and rejected; they were simply left out.”
“The International Protection Bill in its current form represents a profound shift in how the State treats people seeking refuge and asylum in this country. It does so in a way that weakens safeguards, compresses procedures and expands coercive powers without building the healthcare and protection capacity that even the existing system lacks. Human rights' organisations have warned that the Bill risks prioritising speed over fairness, deterrents over protection and administrative convenience over medical and psychological concerns of real significance. What is presented as reform is in fact a model that accelerates decision-making while stripping out the very protections that could make those decisions safe, lawful and humane. This is not about marginal technical defects.”
“Some €107,000 was recently allocated to Whitegate but that was only to appoint a specialist to survey possible works. It will not fund any actual works, over two years on from Storm Babet. The residents of these villages are sick and tired of waiting and fighting for flood protection. When will we see a timeline for these works in Mogeely, Rathcormack, Killeagh, Castlemartyr, Lady's Bridge and Whitegate?”
“We are all conscious that parts of the country have been gripped with anxiety this week and last week in relation to heavy rainfall and risk of flooding. So far, east Cork has been spared this time around but what we are left with is an eerie calm because we know we may not be so fortunate next week, next month or next year. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to streamlining and delivering flood relief schemes. The large-scale project for Midleton is extremely overdue at this point but it is at least edging towards a planning application. Meanwhile, the villages that were struck by Storm Babet in October 2023 remain entirely in limbo. There is no clarity on when works will begin to protect Mogeely, Killeagh, Castlemartyr, Rathcormack, Lady's Bridge or Whitegate.”
“The Taoiseach told my colleague, Deputy Rice, in December that, "At some stage, some resolution of this has to happen on a sustainable basis." Yet, all he has done after meeting a group of these workers in June last year is pass on the same detached bureaucratic responses from the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Will the Taoiseach intervene on behalf of these workers? Why is this cohort of healthcare workers with long Covid not having the reality of workplace transmission of their condition recognised?”
“I met today with a group of healthcare workers who have been living with long Covid since the early stages of the pandemic. They are utterly distraught with how they have been treated by the Government after having their special Covid leave with pay cut on New Year's Eve. The Department of Social Protection will not recognise long Covid as an occupational injury for these workers because it says that it is not possible to establish with confidence that the disease has been contracted through a person's occupation and not through community transmission. Yet, these healthcare staff were receiving special Covid leave with pay for five to six years on the basis that they contracted the virus at work. Also, the State rightly paid €1.7 million in compensation to families of healthcare workers who died after contracting Covid in the workplace.”
“Before I call on the Minister to open the debate, I remind Members that two separate motions are being debated in this slot, namely, the motion regarding the proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the signing of the agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the transfer of passenger name record, PNR, data; and the motion regarding the proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the conclusion of the agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the transfer of PNR data. The motions will be moved separately, but debated together and decided by separate questions.”
“We need to see the aim of the East Cork Rail Alliance as one of the most sensible, pragmatic, evidence-based and important solutions to meeting the basic transport needs and regional development needs of a growing population, and we need to see political will behind it.”
“Accidents are frequent and there is a punishing daily grind involved in the most basic of journeys for thousands of commuters. Members of the East Cork Rail Alliance visited Leinster House yesterday to meet TDs. They are campaigning to reinstate the rail link between Youghal and Midleton. The train link is a key solution to the traffic crisis in east Cork, along with the expediting of the Cork city Luas and the development of Local Link. It is also core to sustainable development in east Cork and the basic quality of life of commuters. We cannot just build our way out of chronic congestion with more and more multi-lane, complicated road designs that essentially amount to widening funnels of traffic, thereby worsening congestion in the long run.”
“Storm Chandra has once again exposed how vulnerable our country is in the face of extreme weather events and how poorly set up we are to adapt to climate turbulence, which is intensifying with the passage of time and which we know from science will intensify more and more into the future. There was major disruption in road transport across Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford yesterday, causing chaos and leaving thousands of commuters stranded. Professor Brian Caulfield of Trinity College spoke on "Morning Ireland" earlier about how historically poor investment in public transport exposes Ireland to much greater risk in the context of extreme weather. On an average day, regardless of weather, the N25, which is the main route from Youghal to Cork city, is heaving with traffic.”
“They deserve a Government that puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to the real, unavoidable costs of living with a disability and a Government that matches soothing rhetoric around disability rights with concrete action.”
“It would benefit around 310,000 people at a cost of approximately €124 million. It is eminently doable. Each year winter bonus payments across core social welfare schemes are funded through Supplementary Estimates. This payment we are proposing can be delivered in exactly the same way. Of course, much more needs to be done in the medium to long term, such as removing barriers to education and employment, introducing personalised budgets and delivering the permanent cost-of-disability payment. Right now, however, people are struggling, and a targeted €400 payment would be a very modest step in the right direction and would make a material difference to people who have been disregarded for too long. This comes back to basic respect and dignity for disabled people.”
“It did not introduce the cost-of-disability payment that was set out in the programme for Government and actually stripped away one-off supports. At that protest in December, one man spoke about having to decide whether to turn on two bars or one bar on his electric heater because energy costs have risen so sharply. At a later session here on the campus of Leinster House, we heard a harrowing account of a woman having to stop home dialysis because of energy costs and relying instead on hospital dialysis, which placed her health more at risk and is actually a greater financial cost to the State. This is the gulf that has opened up in Ireland between a flourishing economy on the one hand and the vindication of basic rights for disabled people on the other. We again urge the Minister to intervene and deliver this modest targeted payment.”
“That is indefensible. In the Social Democrats alternative budget, we put forward fair and achievable proposals, including a permanent cost-of-disability payment alongside a €15 weekly increase in disability allowance. Taken together, those measures would have increased disabled people's incomes by over €1,800 a year. Following a campaign led by a coalition of disability organisations in December, we called on the Government to introduce an emergency winter payment of €400 for disabled people and we are doing so again today. We actually agree with the Government that targeted cost-of-living measures are needed for groups most vulnerable to poverty, but the Government failed to take that opportunity in the recent budget.”
“The cost-of-living crisis is affecting people across society but disproportionately impacting disabled people. It has been long established that disabled people already face major additional financial burdens that result from living with a disability in a society that is so poorly adapted to their needs. These costs mount up daily in areas like healthcare, transport, energy, specialist equipment and the variety of supports needed to live as independently as possible. The figures are stark. Two in every five people with a disability cannot afford essentials like heating or new clothes. One in five lives in consistent poverty. Disabled people here also face far greater barriers to employment than their European counterparts. Yet, instead of easing that pressure, budget 2026 is leaving disabled people €1,400 worse off than the previous year.”
“This will despite the fact that the commission had briefed the media on its position at other junctures. The recent Mental Health Commission report on restrictive practices was encouraging at first sight, showing a declining rate of chemical restraint. However, the report did not provide information on what it termed enduring cases of chemical restraint. It does not inform us in those cases of how long people were restrained even though there is a duty on the part of services to provide the Mental Health Commission with that information. The number of those cases is considerable. This is a very curious omission, and one that needs to be clarified.”
“There was no vindication of the rights of some of those residents who did not have family representation. There was no use of soft power on the part of the Mental Health Commission to even express concern about what was happening. All of this played out very publicly at the time. The Mental Health Commission claims it was legally constrained from commentary and yet it was able to comment following the publication of the Kerry CAMHS reports and make a case for an extension of its own regulatory powers into child services at the time. Representatives from the Mental Health Commission showed an aggressive defensiveness against any formal questioning of these measures at an Oireachtas committee meeting in December 2022, saying they were constrained from commentary due to regulatory processes.”
“The Mental Health Commission inspection ratings of over 90% compliance across consecutive reports needs to be called into question in that context as does its whole way of carrying out inspections. We also had the commission's cold, detached handling of the closure of the Owenacurra Centre in Midleton across 2021 and 2022 and the transfer of vulnerable adult service users from a single-room, town-centre location where they had lived and become integrated into community over decades, only to be moved to dormitory-style long-stay wards in a relatively remote location in Glanmire and also in St. Finbarr's Hospital near the city. The Mental Health Commission initially declined to meet with family members of residents who were embroiled in this traumatic upheaval and later agreed to do so in a very cursory manner under political pressure.”
“I conclude by coming back to the Mental Health Commission, which is often referred to in the public domain almost as a sacred moral authority in the area of mental health that is beyond rebuke or question. It is important to acknowledge that it does very important and essential work, and has highly committed and capable personnel. However, it needs to answer questions on how there was such a gulf of difference between its inspection report findings into Bloomfield Hospital in south Dublin and the day-to-day reality of abuse and neglect that persisted there for residents until a very courageous staff member blew the whistle and an independent investigation was undertaken.”
“This gap in services worsens chronic overcrowding and piles strain onto front-line professionals. The emotional toll on affected patients, families and staff cannot be overstated. I welcome what is contained in the motion. The message must be clear: we need ring-fenced investment for all tiers of service including emergency services. We need 24-7 CAMHS pathways that exist in reality. We need oversight that ensures that emergency mental health care is humane and sensitive to the trauma and adversity that service users have experienced, that is accountable and consistent across the country and not subject to a post code lottery. People in crisis cannot wait another decade. They need the State to meet them with a sense of urgency and containment consistently and in every part of the country.”
“This is unacceptable because people who come to hospital in mental health crisis usually come in a very vulnerable and distressed state of mind seeking help, not further trauma. We cannot discuss this issue without acknowledging the devastating consequences when the system fails. The absence of appropriate supports in emergency departments and a lack of viable alternatives have had tragic results, including in the case of Adam Loughnane in Galway whose family continue to campaign for Adam's protocol. Adam's experience underlines the reality faced daily by emergency department staff and the difficulty of providing constant one-to-one supervision while people await assessment or onward placement, particularly in overcrowded emergency departments that are under extreme pressure.”
“These are high-risk high-volume environments, and they cannot remain in a grey regulatory zone. A further issue which demands attention is that of restrictive practices. Based on anecdotal reports - the fact that they are anecdotal is a problem in itself - restrictive practices are being used on people in acute mental distress in emergency departments largely because these spaces are not designed or resourced to provide safe therapeutic care. The use of such practices in emergency departments appears to fall into a regulatory vacuum. As far as I am aware, neither HIQA nor the Mental Health Commission has formal oversight in this regard. There is no national data, no consistent reporting system and no routine external scrutiny.”
“HIQA inspects emergency departments but it does not assess the quality of mental health assessments carried out there or the suitability of the environment for those in psychological distress. The inspector of mental health services has a statutory duty to report on the quality of care wherever it occurs and this report is very welcome but it must be honest about its limits. A survey-based exercise, while useful, cannot provide a full picture. Some respondents had no data on mental health presentations and some could not supply staffing information. The report acknowledges that a deeper assessment of emergency departments' mental health provision is beyond its scope. Will the Minister of State indicate whether the Mental Health Bill will close the gap in oversight and inspection of mental health care in emergency departments?”
“The guidance is clear: every 24-7 emergency department should have defined access to CAMHS assessment through a simple and straightforward referral procedure supported by dedicated CAMHS liaison and on-call services available around the clock through a single point of contact. Despite this, survey respondents told the Mental Health Commission that in some model 4 hospitals and several model 3 hospitals these standards simply did not exist. Delayed assessments were leading to prolonged and inappropriate placement of children in emergency departments or acute medical wards. This is not just inefficiency; it is harm. Oversight is another critical issue.”
“We also need serious capital investment in therapeutic settings, spaces designed for calm assessment, de-escalation as opposed to containment in corridors. The Mental Health Commission’s findings on care for children in emergency departments are especially disturbing. One example cited in the report captures the reality behind the national picture. Cavan Hospital’s emergency department described: ... major issues involving young patients with mental health difficulty, between the ages of 15 and 18, presenting in crisis situations, especially those young people seeking a place of safety. Such crises can persist for several days or more. Staff feel insufficiently resourced to manage this cohort of patients, resulting in frustration for clinical teams, patients, and their families. That is an indictment of the system.”
“That approach may satisfy those who produce spreadsheets in the Department of public expenditure, but it fails patients and it burns out the staff who remain. Last week, representatives from the HSE failed to provide basic information on the number of approved psychology posts in mental health services for older adults. That was a clear attempt on the executive's part to conceal the deficit in staffing. We know that older adults with mental health difficulties are more at risk of distressing, unnecessary repeat emergency department admissions that will, in turn, lead to a worsening in the state of their mental health. The stranglehold on recruitment must end. We need proper multi-annual workforce planning, funded posts, clear staffing benchmarks as we had in A Vision for Change and long-term certainty, not annual emergency firefighting.”
“The motion before us calls for dedicated mental health emergency rooms in model 3 and model 4 hospitals, an expert review of the role of model 2 hospitals, ring-fenced investment in community alternatives, specialist staffing and a fully integrated crisis pathway for children and young people. These are sensible, evidence-based proposals. We also need to come back always to investment in the workforce. We can construct crisis rooms and centres but without psychiatric nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, psychologists and doctors to staff them, they will be mere shells. Mental health services cannot function without adequate staffing. We cannot continue to see crude, blunt recruitment restrictions imposed through the Government’s pay and numbers strategy.”
“We also need to look at models of mental health care that are far removed from the medicalised bureaucratic system we have. In this regard, I refer to Kyrie Farm in County Kildare where recovery is fostered through a deep sense of community and therapeutic enterprising connection with nature. The Minister of State is to be commended for increases in mental health funding during her tenure, but the reality on the ground is that funding still falls far short of the scale of need and for families navigating the system access to timely care can remain a postcode lottery.”