Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Since I was elected in February this year, the issue of mental health has been raised by a huge number of my constituents. The issue is central and fundamental to us. Mental illness is one of the most serious social issues facing our country today. There is not a townland or housing estate that has not experienced the horrific, silent funeral that a suicide brings. We all have attended funerals where the grief of the family is immeasurable.

This Dáil, the Thirty-second Dáil, has a great responsibility to make meaningful progress on this issue. It is generally accepted that the mental health service is the poor relation of the HSE. This was brought home to us when the talks on the formation of the Government were taking place. At the time money was diverted again from the mental health budget. As Minister of State Deputy Finian McGrath said in his speech, the mental health service has to get extra resources.

In 1950, 76 suicides were recorded in this country. By 2011, this number had increased more than sevenfold. From 2001 to 2007, there was a significant reduction in the suicide rate but, unfortunately, suicide has since increased very significantly. This can be linked to the lack of funding being allocated to the mental health service. We have the fourth highest youth suicide rate in Europe. It is very hard for us as elected representatives to see young people looking for help and not being able to gain access to it.

My constituency, Tipperary, feels it has been seriously hit by the lack of resources. It is hard to believe that a county with 160,000 people has no psychiatric beds. If one is in the south of the county, one has to go to Kilkenny to gain access to a psychiatric bed. If one is in the north of the county, one must go to Ennis. In my town, Thurles, there is a clinic that serves 34,000 people but it is a clinic only in name. It has no occupational therapist and no psychiatric counselling. Only medication is provided for the patients who attend. If we are to be serious about mental health and access to mental health facilities, we must put the resources in place to ensure people can avail themselves of them.

A decision was taken a number of years ago to close St. Michael’s in Clonmel. I hope that in the lifetime of this Government we can again have psychiatric beds available in our county. In the past couple of weeks, the HSE took the decision to close Mount Sion in Tipperary. It is a residential facility for people with mental illness. At its peak, the facility was able to cater for 19 patients. There are now nine patients domiciled there. Recently, elected representatives and relatives of the patients in Mount Sion met representatives of the HSE, who gave us a commitment that they would re-examine the decision to close the facility. I appeal to the Minister to meet the relatives and hear at first hand the good work the facility is doing. If Mount Sion is closed, another part of the infrastructure in Tipperary will be taken away. It will make our job of providing proper facilities for people with mental health problems all the harder. I hope the HSE will reconsider its decision and keep the facility open.

The HSE is telling us the larger units are not the way forward but the reality is that the facility has worked well. It worked well when it had 19 patients and residents. Now the HSE is saying the infrastructure is not up to HIQA standard but a very small investment would bring it up to that standard. I appeal to the Minister to have the HSE revisit its decision. I hope a positive outcome will emerge.

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