Marie Sherlock
Dublin Central · Labour Party · Ireland
“That is why I want to see our local authorities moving from being just bystanders that license waste collection companies to actually controlling how the service is delivered.”
“That is why I want to pay tribute to all the people who are here today, including Stoneybatter Pride of Place, Phibsboro Village Tidy Towns and all the people working within their communities to keep them clean.”
“Panda’s parent company, Beauparc, sold for €1.3 billion in 2021 to an Australian investment firm. It is also co-owned by a US private equity firm. They are not in Ireland for the good of their health. They are here because they know they can make serious money. We know Greyhound’s parent company is registered on the Isle of Man.”
“The other important thing to say is that we did not hear any new ideas today, and I say that with the greatest respect to the Minister of State. We did not hear any ideas with regard to the profound challenges we have regarding our plateauing recycling rates and all the other issues that are there. That is disappointing.”
“I pay tribute to a lot of the work that many officials and workers in Dublin City Council do because, in some ways, their hands are tied behind their back. They recognise the issue with regard to landlord responsibility. I am very disappointed to hear the Minister of State's comments about landlord responsibility.”
“Dublin City Council was able to negotiate for the installation of ten-tonne compactors in the commercial areas, yet when it came to the residential areas, I understand the council tried to negotiate with the bin collectors on the roll-out of shared collection systems, but to no avail. That pretty much sums up our dysfunctional system.”
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“Paul Reid powerfully told us last year when he appeared before our Oireachtas joint committee on drugs reform, the members of the citizens' assembly were stunned by the length of time it has taken to introduce the most modest of changes to drug policy, and that commitments made back in 2017 - almost a decade ago - on a health diversion approach are still not implemented. Now, in 2025, we have those clear recommendations from the citizens' assembly. We have detailed recommendations from the Oireachtas joint committee on drugs reform, of which I was privileged to be part in the previous Oireachtas, yet we see them effectively ignored in the programme for Government. There is not a single mention of decriminalisation.”
“That is why we are passionate about introducing a comprehensive health-led approach for drug use in this country, and that is why we feel so strongly that decriminalisation of the drug user has to be a crucial part of that process. The powerful work of the citizens' assembly made clear that decriminalisation was one of three parts in moving to a comprehensive health-led approach alongside health diversion and dissuasive sanctions. My question to Minister of State and Government this morning is: is this Government committed to decriminalisation of the drug user? Is it committed to implementing the full intent of the citizens' assembly report to this Oireachtas? To date, it is not clear that it is. As Mr.”
“It is real when mothers with an addiction go to ground and hide away for fear that their children will be taken away from them; it is real when we hear from young people of their fears of lifelong convictions if they seek help; it is real when people across the greater Leinster area have to travel to Dublin for opiate stabilisation programmes provided by a small number of GPs, and indeed that happens right across the country; and it is real when I look at the people in my community and the communities across Dublin Central - across Dublin 1, 3, 7 and 9 - who have been ravaged for years by deprivation, poverty and trauma and who see no hope, no future and no opportunity.”
“-----often when it was not popular to be talking about it. As a proud TD for Dublin Central and the communities of Dublin Central, it is unconscionable to me that we have people dying in our streets and in our communities from drugs overdoses and that Ireland has one of the highest number of drug-induced deaths when compared with every other country across the European Union. To me, it is the antithesis of our Republic and our values to respect the dignity of every individual that people are shamed and stigmatised into not seeking and getting the help and support they need. Addiction must be recognised for what it is - not a criminal justice problem, but a social and health need. This is not some perceived stigma. It is very real.”
“The reality that trying to police our way to a drug-free world has not worked. This has been the experiment of the past 50 years here in Ireland and in most developed countries across the world. This morning, I am proud to be introducing our Private Members' motion on behalf of the Labour Party. I welcome campaigners and advocates from a range of organisations to our Public Gallery. They have been at the coal face for many years, working with those in addiction and those who use drugs and dealing with the failures of our system that we currently have. For many years, the Labour Party has been campaigning for a radically different approach to drugs and to reducing harm in this country. I want to pay particular tribute to my colleague, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, for his pioneering campaigning on this-----”
“Drugs mean different things to different people from the person who has a serious addiction to the recreational user to the families trying to support their teenager to the grandparents having to step in and to the communities suffering with dealing and drug-related and violent intimidation. While each of these groups may have a different perspective, I think all would agree that the current war on drugs has not worked. As the Minister of State knows, drugs are in every community across this country. They are almost in every bar and sports club and even workplaces. Whether people like it or not, drugs are all around us. Some people get away with using them on a recreational basis whereas others do not, falling into spiral of vicious addiction that robs many of their basic dignity, their health, their family and, sometimes, their lives.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: recalls: — the Labour Party Motion re Drugs Policy and Decriminalisation of the User, agreed by Dáil Éireann on 30th November, 2022; — the report of the Citizens' Assembly on Drug Use, published in January 2024; — the interim report of the Oireachtas Special Joint Committee on Drugs Use, published in October 2024; and — the commitment in the Programme for Government to a health-led response for people found in possession of drugs for personal use, with diversion to health services, and the commitment to work collaboratively on any recommendations issued by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use; notes that: — there has been little progress on achieving these objectives, while use of controlled drugs continues to rise; — since the opening of Ireland's first medically supervised injecting centre in December 2024, nearly a decade after being first proposed and legislated for, there has been no further progress on the provision of safe consumption spaces; — the use of cocaine has rapidly increased in Ireland, and Health Research Board (HRB) figures show it is now the most common drug treated, accounting for 40 per cent of all treatment cases in 2024, a 7 per cent increase on 2023, and a 250 per cent increase over seven years since 2017; — the potency of drugs being sold for consumption is increasing, and new synthetic drugs continue to be introduced with unknown long-term health impacts; and — the European Drug Report 2024: Trends and Developments, showed Ireland had the highest level of drug deaths in Europe in 2020, while HRB figures show 286 drug-induced deaths in Ireland in 2021, and 352 in 2020; and calls on the Government to: — designate the forthcoming National Drugs Strategy as an interim strategy, recognising that the final report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use, mandated to respond to the Citizens' Assembly, is due in June 2026; — establish a dedicated Cabinet Committee on Drugs Use, to prepare a whole-of-Government response to the policy and legislative changes that will be necessary following the final Committee report; — swiftly move to develop additional fixed and mobile safer consumption spaces, including Mobile Overdose Prevention Centres in our main cities; — as a matter of absolute urgency, implement a comprehensive health-led response to the possession of drugs for personal use; — decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use by repealing Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1977; — commit to multi-annual funding for harm reduction services, and the resources necessary to support people who use drugs, in accessing health, social and recovery supports; — ensure appropriate, meaningful, and sustained involvement of people with living and lived experience of drug use in the design, implementation, and evaluation of all drug-related policies and services; and — ensure regulatory oversight of all drug treatment services, with a commitment to person-centred and evidence-informed support programmes.”
“Not only is it a last line of therapy in the US, it is also seen as an appropriate therapy for earlier intervention. Yet, the HSE's clinical decision unit, CDU, has rejected the use of Pluvicto in the public system. The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics made the submission for approval. Those who work at the centre are supposed to be the experts on cancer care. They submitted an application for approval, and it was rejected by the CDU. The HSE and the Department of Health need to issue a direction to ensure that this lifesaving drug is made freely available to men within the public system. It should not just be just be available in the private sector.”
“It took a whole year for that care pathway to play out for him and for him to get the surgery he so badly needed. That is not acceptable. The other critical point relates to access to drugs. There is a fundamental inequality regarding access to drugs, particularly oncology drugs, between the public and private sectors. I want to reference access to Pluvicto, which is an end-of-line therapy for metastasized prostate cancer. In April, 30 oncologists wrote a letter to the HSE to effectively plead with it to reverse its decision in respect of Pluvicto. This is a drug that is available publicly in Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Slovenia and Greece. In other words, it is widely available in many countries across Europe. It is approved by the European Medicines Agency, EMA.”
“I do not know whether we are going to find out or not, because we suspect that maybe there is not any additional funding for cancer care in the budget for next year, and that it will all be down to increased productivity. The reality is that cancer is the leading cause of premature death among men. I know from replies to parliamentary questions we have submitted on prostate cancer, which is, of course, the most significant cancer among men, that just under 39% of all patients get the treatment and care within the national cancer control programme timeframes. That is a serious concern. I have one constituent who got a heightened PSA result in summer 2024. It took until November to get an MRI. It was April by the time he got a biopsy and a diagnosis only happened in June. Surgery took place in September.”
“Research from Scotland shows that men living in less well-off or more deprived areas are up to ten times more likely to die by suicide than those from more affluent areas. It is important to say that the suicide rate among Traveller men is over six times higher than the rate for the male population in general. Those are very stark figures. There is a need for real support. The Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, and I have spoken about this, and I welcome her efforts. Certainly, however, a huge amount more needs to be done in this space. On cancer care, Deputy Cullinane referred to the difficulties in trying to understand how much extra funding is being allocated in respect of cancer care. It is a bit like the third secret of Fatima.”
“It cast in very stark terms the premature deaths that occur, particularly in deprived areas, and the mental health issues that exist among men. There are two issues I want to speak about. The first relates to mental health. It is absolutely shocking to think that 80% of those who take their lives in this country are men. We do not want to reduce them to a statistic. Each of those men had a family, a story and a community. That it is so heavily weighted towards men is really shocking. The Samaritans report, Out of Sight, Out of Mind, from 2020 indicated that men in Ireland are three to four times more likely to die by suicide than women. While there is a crucial focus on young men, we know middle-aged men actually have the highest average suicide rate of any age group. Inequality, of course, and disadvantage also play a crucial part.”
“I welcome that we are having statements on men's health. I also acknowledge and pay tribute to Deputies Mark Ward and Seán Crowe for talking about their personal experiences. Leadership is important in terms of a lot of the things we are talking about, namely, breaking down the stigma that exists and helping people to overcome the inability to talk about their experiences. That inability is closely related to so many issues around to men's health. Often, there has been a failure to believe and recognise women's health conditions. For men, it has been about a huge failure to put themselves forward and the stigma and shame of seeking medical help, which we have to change. I acknowledge the Movember report that was published a number of weeks ago.”
“There are no references to the hospitals in Romania and Greece to which Irish women are currently travelling, and there are new conditions. What assurances can the Taoiseach give that women will still be able to travel abroad to the expert clinics they need?”
“I want to raise the publication of the national framework for the management of endometriosis in Ireland. This was an eagerly awaited report, with a huge weight of expectation, given the enormous failing of thousands of women with this desperately debilitating condition. There are welcome aspects to the report in terms of the greater commitment to investment and training, but endometriosis sufferers reading this report have huge concerns. They are deeply hurt by the references to paracetamol. If paracetamol was sufficient to deal with this condition, we would not be talking about it here. They are outraged at the replacement of the endometriosis surgery abroad scheme. It does not look like progress when we look at the details. It looks like a monumental backwards step.”
“I want to hear from the Tánaiste what assurances he can provide to artists that Arts Council funding will not be cut in 2026 and that we will see the same volume, or more, given to the practice of arts in this country.”
“The arts and culture budget received an actual cut in budget 2026. It went from just above €300 million to under €300 million. There was a lot of fanfare about the basic income for the arts and that expansion is welcome. However, that fanfare has masked what is happening to arts and cultural funding, which is that there will be less next year than this year. Arts Council funding is crucial to supporting arts practice in Ireland. It is a crucial lifeline in promoting and sustaining the best of artists in this country. Last year it supported 1,800 individuals and 588 organisations. There is a real concern that with this cut to arts and culture current expenditure funding, the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, and the Government are intent on punishing the Arts Council because of the IT crisis that emerged earlier this year.”
“We are not seeing that urgency now, and that needs to change. The other critical part of this relates to childcare workers. In January, we are going to see a 75 cent difference between what an early years educator earns and the national minimum wage in this country. The reality is that there is a massive retention issue within the early years sector. We have to ensure that those wages dramatically improve to ensure there are enough places out there for parents and families and a proper working life for those in the sector.”
“There is a serious credibility issue here. We see it with regard to the underdelivery of the social housing targets and, indeed, what we are seeing now with regard to childcare places. This is an issue that was raised with the Department during the summer. I raised it last week, and we have seen no response, frankly, from the Department on these issues. It is deadly serious for parents. Mothers are unable to return to work because of the lack of childcare availability. Parents are having to reduce hours and, of course, there are thousands out there who want to rejoin the labour force after many years and they simply cannot all because of the shortage of childcare places. Frankly, there is a lack of urgency on the part of the Government. Last year, people heard that urgency pre-election.”
“Some 33,000 children under the age of three were on a waiting list last year and 10,000 children are waiting for an after-school place. All the while, there is zero urgency from Government. This is having a massive impact on families. What actions is the Government taking to ensure that the go slow ends in the Department of children and Pobal? What assurances can he make to parents that those promised childcare places from last year, let alone this year, will be made available?”
“The process started, applications closed in January and feedback was due in March. Funding was to be spent in total by this December. Instead, not a single penny has been spent. Pobal only sent the contracts two weeks ago. We now learn from providers that there is missing paperwork. The earliest date for construction is two or three months away and all the while construction costs have gone up since applications were submitted at the start of this year. Some providers have told me they are unsure whether they will be able to proceed with their planned expansion because the original grant will not cover the cost of works. This is a deadly serious situation. Thousands of families are on waiting lists for childcare.”
“This time last year we could not open the newspapers without seeing the Government make promise after promise to families desperately in need of childcare. They were told the Government could do something quickly about the cost of childcare in the early part of Government and we now know that is a broken promise. The Government said it would intervene with regard to supply. To be fair, it committed money to that last week which is great. However, as with so much with this Government, announcements are one thing but delivery is very different. I have very serious questions about the competence and capability in the Department of children and Pobal. Last year, parents across the country were told that more places were coming and €25 million was being put in place under the building blocks scheme designed to help existing providers expand.”
“There will be huge amount of trauma for the staff and other minors involved and we have to make sure all the supports will be in place for them. It is important to say that every day across this country care workers go in to homes that look very ordinary on the outside and do incredible work in them, whether that is caring for those with an intellectual or physical disability or children in care. I know from talking to some of those care workers last night that yesterday's events have sent a chill down their spine because the reality is that some care workers have to work in extremely difficult and challenging conditions where, in spite of all of the safeguards, they have to put themselves at risk every single day to work and care for others.”
“I want to start by expressing my deep shock and sadness at the passing of the young person and injury to others in an apartment in north Dublin yesterday. Obviously there is a criminal investigation and we are limited in what we can say, but there is an additional layer of sadness that this is an unaccompanied minor thousands of miles away from his family and community. As we understand it, this happened only days after arriving in this country. In the fullness of time, of course, there will have to be an internal Tusla investigation, but I very much hope that all of the necessary procedures, staffing and safeguards were in place when that shocking incident happened yesterday, in particular given that the care home is contracted to run on behalf of Tusla and not run by Tusla itself.”
“There are very serious questions for this Government in terms of the initiatives that we have been told are being taken to try to reduce the waiting lists and the failure to take them up, particularly with regard to treatment abroad.”
“I think of Dollceana Carter and all the other children whose names we do not want to bring into the Chamber because those families have suffered in silence and want to retain the privacy of their grief and suffering. Those children are being failed because they are being left inoperable. Those families have been put through agony for far longer than they ever should have. They have been failed in terms of the anxiety that has been imposed upon them because of the promise after promise that has not been lived up to. Those failures continue in terms of the 129 children that are waiting for surgery and have yet to get their scheduled operations and the children who were told there would be treatment abroad in New York or London. We see so few, if any, being offered that.”
“This arises because of a failure of corporate governance, a failure of clinical governance and a failure of management. The buck stops with the previous Government and this one in terms of how children have been repeatedly failed. This has been a failure by the Government to grasp the issues within the hospital to ensure that the board of CHI, as it then was, and the boards of the individual hospitals actually lived up to their responsibilities and ensured proper care for those children. I want to look forward and ensure that the legacy of Harvey Morrison Sherratt and all the other children who have been failed is that those children currently waiting for care get the service and therapy they so badly deserve and need. Harvey is only one of a large number of children.”
“I express my concern about and thoughts for the individuals and staff in the care home in Donaghmede where a very serious incident happened earlier this afternoon. It is a dangerous business in politics when you get people’s hopes up and overpromise and underdeliver. The reason we are here today is because of those commitments that the Tánaiste made when he was the Minister for Health back in 2017. I do not doubt the sincerity of his intentions then, but the clear reason for the failure with regard to that commitment is Fine Gael in government supported by Fianna Fáil, failing to ensure a functioning Children’s Health Ireland and a functioning series of paediatric hospitals that then went on to become CHI such that we have an inappropriate system of care for the most vulnerable children in our State.”
“This school has had to move into a second temporary building, its second in 20 years, because of the Department's incompetence in managing this process. There have been commitments that the project will be completed by 2027, given verbally earlier this year. Is the project going to be completed by mid-2027 to allow the school community to move into its new school building in Dominick Street, Dublin 1?”
“I thank the Minister of State for conveying the written response from the Department. A lot of it is a copy-and-paste job of what was circulated in June of this year. To be very clear, there is no update in this response from the Department, that is zero update as to what is happening the new school building. There is no plan B apparent in the Minister of State's response here. For a school to have been told repeatedly that all efforts were going to be made by the Department to get this new school building built, I see no detail in the response, other than bland general assurances that the Department is doing all it can. That is not good enough. The parents, staff and most crucially the pupils of Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire deserve answers from the Department.”
“Instead, I have reason to believe that no official from the Department has ever set foot on that building site after the works commenced, even though it is only a five minute walk from the Department of Education and Youth in Marlborough Street. Will there be a new tender for the completion of the works in Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire? What is the timeline of that tender? When does the Department expect that the school community, the staff, parents and pupils, will get their new school building?”
“One official in particular, Hubert Loftus, gave a commitment that there would be a report at the end of the year updating the school community about the school building. That report never came. We do not even know if it was ever produced. I have contacted the officials directly seeking that information and we have heard nothing back. We have written to the Minister seeking a meeting about these issues and we have heard nothing back. Notwithstanding the lack of information, what we do know is that this school has been treated disgracefully. Solemn promises were made in November 2023 after those horrendous events, that this long-awaited building would be built.”
“We have to understand the reasons for the termination, particularly with regard to the cost. Was cost the reason? If it was cost related, as I understand it, the cost this year stood somewhere between €21 million and €25 million. If we go back out to tender again, however, the Department will have little change from €30 million for this school building, which would probably make it one of the most expensive school buildings in the State. The reason for that is because of the mess and incompetence within the Department. There are serious questions for Department officials in how they have handled this. In advance of the election last year, Department officials sat around a table with members of the board of management, parents and elected representatives.”
“Will the Department go out to tender? How long will that take? Is the Department confident that it is going to be able to get another contractor in to take up where the original contractor left off? Let us remember that this is a job that is just weeks away from coming to roof level. With regard to the Department’s role in all of this, it brought in a project manager last year to great fanfare. We were told that KSNPM would sort out all the issues, including the design, the delays and all of that. We are now 16 months on and we have an empty building site. There are serious questions about the money the Department is paying to project managers and everyone else in this project because we have no resolution, despite these project managers being brought in. There is still no solution in sight. Why was the contract terminated?”
“My Topical Issue relates to Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire and its new school building on Dominick Street in Dublin 1. I stood with Government Ministers and representatives from the school two and a half years ago when the sod was turned in June 2023. The school was supposed to be open in June 2025, but instead we have an empty building site. The Department of education terminated the contract for building works on 24 June 2025. The school community is now about to move to yet another temporary building, having already spent two decades in a temporary dilapidated building. We have zero information about what is happening with the new school building. Four months on from the termination of that contract, what is the Department of education and the Minister of State's plan B? What is the plan to get this long-awaited school built?”
“There is an even greater impetus and need to ensure that we get things right in this school, yet we have this nonsense that the project was completed in 2022. That is factually incorrect. I would like the Minister of State to bring that back to the Minister for education and to plead with her to visit the school as soon as possible.”
“If that project manager has reported back to the Department of education that the project has been completed, there is a serious dereliction of duty there. In fact, I would go as far as to say that somebody has been seriously negligent in reporting to the Department. There is fault here on the part of the project manager and whatever officials in the Department wrote the statement claiming the project had been completed in 2022. It is a source of shame that the Department of education would consider any works left half-done to have been completed. This is particularly the case in a school that provides a safe and secure space to children, many of whom have gone through trauma, are going through homelessness accommodation or have seen things in their life that any child should not see.”
“I thank the Minister of State for that reply on behalf of the Minister for education. I have to ask him directly. Is he comfortable with children walking on asbestos tiles every day of the week? The tiles were broken by works undertaken three years ago. We know that there is no safe level of asbestos. I have to ask him that direct question. The Minister of State said the project was completed in 2022. He mentioned the good money, €6 billion, being spent on schools. Some of it has been well spent. Some of it, frankly, has been appallingly spent. A project manager was taken on to oversee this project. It is a project manager who, I am aware, is also involved in other school projects at this time.”
“The Department of education, to my mind, has done nothing to investigate the works that it paid for three years ago, nor has it taken any actions to ensure that the contractors it paid actually did the correct work. A letter was sent to the Department last week from the board of management of the school. I appreciate that it is budget week and there is lots to be done, but the letter pointed out that there is an immediate health and safety risk. As of this afternoon, there has been no response from the Department of education to that school. If that school were in a better off area with parents with more political capital, I think there would be a speedier response. As of this afternoon, the Department of education has not acknowledged any of these problems.”
“When the school went elsewhere for those quotes, every other contractor said they could not get involved in this and that the school would have to go back to the original contractors. You could not make this up. All the while, this is a school catering to some of the most disadvantaged children in this city. The principal herself has had to climb onto the roof to apply Tec7 to a leaking roof light. She has had to paint a closet room to try to create some space in the school and has had to become an expert in unblocking toilets. This is the reality of this school. There are other schools that are suffering from a severe shortage in terms of the capitation grant and the cost of running the school. More crucially, we have a very real health and safety risk here. In fact, it is an immediate health and safety risk.”
“The floors were damaged when the fire doors were being installed and the plumbing is simply inadequate. One of the maddest things when you walk through the school is that the walls are only half-painted. The painter went to a certain point and no further. Some of these situations arose during construction. Some of it was pre-existing. When the contractor went to the project manager three years ago, they were told the Department had not approved expanding the scope of works. Earlier this year, the Department said it should have approved them but, lo and behold, the project manager said the account was closed and the case had to be resubmitted. When the school went back to the original contractors for new quotes, they declined and advised the school to find an alternative elsewhere.”
“These works should be a source of pride for the school. Instead, the school has been left with a disgraceful botched job that no one seems to be taking responsibility for. The lack of accountability and oversight by the Department of education is frankly disgraceful. I visited the school a number of weeks ago. My appeal to the Minister of State and to the Minister for education is to visit this school. What I saw was asbestos in the floors throughout the building and broken tiles that occurred during the works and on which children are walking every single day. There is water ingress on the roof yard. The plug points have no earthing. The roof shed is disintegrating. It is on the fourth floor. It is a flat roof and it is unprotected. Think about that in the middle of a storm.”
“My question for the Minister for education relates to Presentation Primary School in George's Hill. Before I get to the problems about the school, I want to say that this is a great school in the heart of the north inner city in Dublin 7. It is a DEIS band 1 school. It probably has one of the most diverse populations of all schools in the country and has a significant amount of need, both social and educational. It has a hugely committed staff, who go above and beyond in ways that will never be aired. Three years ago, the Department paid for extensive works to the school, including three new autism classes, a lift, a new rooftop yard, fire doors, a reconfiguration of the top floor and other works. I understand the project manager was KSN, the main contractor was Vision and other contractors were involved.”
“In my constituency, two mental health clubs were closed down in the past number of years, Shines on Mountjoy Square and the 245 Club in Drumcondra. I met four men earlier this year who have a long history of suffering from schizophrenia and want to set up a mental health club. They came looking for help. They have worked it all out. They have a business plan. They themselves need this service but they recognise the need in everybody else as well. We do not have enough of these mental health clubs, which are vital yet simple service provisions that are effective in keeping people out of hospital and ensuring there is the support and framework around them.”
“The reality is that in this country, according to the Health Research Board, 76% of inpatient admissions for eating disorders are to private facilities or private charity providers. That is simply not good enough. I note the commitment in the budget this week but we have a long road to travel to ensure there is sufficient provision for those suffering one of the most difficult mental health conditions. Of all mental health conditions in this country, eating disorders actually have the longest of inpatient stays. The lesser-spoken part of the mental health piece is mental health clubs. Regarding the piece about prevention, support and assistance to those who got a prevention from additional hospitalisation, for those who have long-standing mental health conditions that is important.”
“In 2018, €46 million was spent on private providers for psychiatric and mental health care. That figure was €80 million last year and we are spending an additional €13 million sending people to the UK for care. As the HSE has itself acknowledged, mental health expenditure on private placements is contributing significantly to the overall mental health expenditure. That level of outsourcing is unacceptable and reflects the deep and structural failings within our system. Earlier this year we spoke about eating disorders and the number of people who have to travel. Again, we have differed in terms of the words being used here but saying that people are choosing to travel seems inaccurate. Those families do not believe that they are choosing to travel. They feel they have no service available to them here.”
“Some regions have upped their game for a variety of reasons and other areas have not. There are 4,554 children waiting to be seen. Deputy Clarke referred to the more than 23,000 people waiting on the psychology waiting list with over 11,000 waiting more than a year. Last week we heard from the Minister for Health that there will now be special interventions with regard to occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy for children's disability services. We did not hear anything with regard to psychology. To my mind, any child waiting 12 months or longer or any period of time is utterly unacceptable. I am told it is complex and that it is difficult to recruit psychologists, but something dramatic has to be done. Outsourcing is the unspoken piece of the mental health funding story.”
“but it is still not on a 24-7 basis. Nor is it clear whether that is for Saturday and Sunday. We need to have that clarity. In my constituency we have had children in adult emergency departments waiting for days for a service to become available. It points to the lack of inpatient mental health services for children. In regard to CAMHS, the announcement this week is to be welcomed. We have not seen the clear commitment on funding. Only when we see that will we be sure that is going to be there. The 300 additional staff across the mental health service is to be welcomed. However, in the context of now having 248 fewer staff in all disciplines compared with December 2023, it is really a case of running to a standstill. In regard to the length of the waiting list, I hear what the Minister of State said.”
“We all know the long hours people spend in emergency departments and to think that people spend hours on end waiting for the appropriate care, particularly when it is a mental health crisis, is horrendous. We know 51,000 people annually access mental health services for the first time through emergency departments, so the lack of out-of-hours services and appropriate spaces is critical. I welcome this week's announcement but I have two questions. First, it is important to have the advanced nurse practitioners or specialist nurses providing that service, but where is the referral to the consultant psychiatrist in the hospital on a 24-hour basis? Second, will the Minister of State clarify what "out of hours" truly means? Many of us would expect it to be 24-7 but I hear today the service is until 2 a.m. That is better than 5 p.m. or 6 p.m.”
“It has already been said that heart attacks, strokes and falls are not nine-to-five issues and for a long time our health services have recognised that with 24-7 availability of care. For mental health, it is a very different story. I was glad to hear this week's announcement of the specialist nurses or advanced nurse practitioners who would operate in emergency departments. I hope there will now be a separate pathway. The Mental Health Commission made clear last year how inappropriate it was, and how out of step Ireland was, that those presenting with a mental health crisis were filtered to an ED. They are first filtered for their physical health and then referred for mental health.”