Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Tá fearg an phobail intuigthe mar go bhfuil an Rialtas seo ag caitheamh €9 milliún ar phúitsí gutháin in áit tacaíocht mheabhairshláinte do pháistí. Tá daoine óga ar fud na tíre seo ag caoineadh amach ar sheirbhísí cearta agus ba cheart an t-airgead seo a athdháileadh ar na seirbhísí sin gan mhoill.

Today is World Mental Health Day. It is a time for raising awareness of the mental health challenges our people face, reducing stigma and mobilising support for improved services for those in crisis. It is also a time to be honest about the Government's record and response to the real mental health crisis our country faces. The crisis is most acute when it comes to children and young people. On the watch of the Government, CAMHS has been brought to its knees. The facts speak for themselves. When the Tánaiste took office in 2020, there were just over 2,000 children waiting for a first-time appointment with CAMHS; today that number stands at nearly 4,000 children. The number of children forced to wait more than a year for their first appointment with CAMHS has more than doubled since the Tánaiste took office, on his watch. There are now 504 children waiting for their first appointment for more than year. When the Tánaiste entered Government, there were 72 CAMHS inpatient beds; today, there are 51. This is a runaway crisis. Vulnerable, at-risk children and young people are locked out of the urgent mental healthcare they urgently need. It is an emergency.

Incredibly, the centrepiece of the Government's mental health support for young people in this budget was to allocate €9 million for phone pouches. That is three times - three times - the additional money the Government provided for CAMHS, which was allocated just €2.9 million. What message does that send to the young people crying out for support and help? The case of one of those young people, Maggie, has been raised here a number of times. To remind the Tánaiste, Maggie is an eleven-year-old child. She is in desperate need of mental health support. She has endured cancer and suffers from depression, anxiety and self-injurious behaviour. Maggie is in severe distress. She does not leave the house apart from going to school. She was on an urgent list for more than a year before getting a CAMHS meeting. An assessment for intellectual disability followed but she was not accepted into that service because there is no specialist in her area. Maggie is in a mental health crisis. Her distraught mother has been begging the Government for help. The Tánaiste and Simon Harris gave commitments that they would look into Maggie's case. Her mother says neither the Tánaiste nor the Taoiseach have made contact. She received a generic response from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, regarding a text service. The child has been waiting for more than two years for the services she needs. Does the Tánaiste really think €9 million for phone pouches will help Maggie or the thousands of other children in desperate need of these services?

Last night, Sinn Féin tabled a motion before the Dáil to reallocate that money to real mental health services. Despite the public outcry, one after another, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party TDs lined up to vote that proposal down. What in God's name does that say to these thousands of young people crying out for the services in relation to the Government's priorities? When will the Government stop digging in and accept this was the wrong call? Will the Tánaiste now tell those young people - 4,000 people waiting for a first appointment with CAMHS, more than 500 of them waiting for more than a year for their first appointment - and their families the Government will do the right thing and invest that money in mental health services that will help them and which they so desperately need?