There must be consequences for Israel's actions. Let us be clear: the reason Israel is committing the most grotesque crimes against humanity is that it has been allowed to murder Palestinian people and impose an apartheid regime without consequences. The world has stood by and let this happen. The world did not impose sanctions. Prior to 7 October, Israeli forces were already murdering Palestinian children without consequences, without sanctions. Every month I get a postcard from Defense for Children International …

Ah, stop.

The Irish passport is one to be proud of. It is a passport which is seen differently to others. Why is this? It is because of our neutrality and of our history. Just this morning I was listening to the radio and to Irish soldiers talking about the role and the massively important work they are doing. I reiterate that our thoughts are with them today as they face serious dangers from Israeli shelling. People across the world see Ireland as a country which has experienced colonialism and has seen conflict for centuri…

It is unforgivable that the Government has failed to invest in new development programmes for national clinical programmes for mental health for the second year running. This means there is no new funding for self-harm, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, and early intervention psychosis. Some 23,000 people presented to Irish hospitals with suicidal ideation in the past three years. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric diagnosis. …

I want to speak about an email I received from a constituent this morning. It reads as follows: Hi Mark Just want to touch base with you with a situation I experienced while in A and E in Tallaght hospital due to mental health issues on Sunday with my 17yr old Son. We went into Tallaght hospital by Ambulance on Sunday due to his suicidal thoughts and psychotic outbursts, they left us waiting 9 hours before he walked out of the hospital. Now he won't go back to the hospital to see the CAMHS doctor that he needs to s…

The Government has thrown in the towel on health and disastrously chosen to underfund the health service in this year's budget. Unfortunately, this will have a profound negative effect on patients, their families, workers and wider service provision, no more so than for those looking to access vital mental health services. Access to mental health services was in crisis before this budget and it will be in crisis after this budget. It was widely reported that the Minister was disappointed with the health allocation …

South Dublin County Council, SDCC, received sports capital funding to supply a pavilion, dressing rooms and parks throughout the county in 2019. It was very welcome. Included in this funding were dressing rooms, showers and meeting rooms in Collinstown Park. Collinstown FC, which plays in the park, is a well-run, family-orientated football team in north Clondalkin. At present, the club has 24 teams, with 400 players, ranging from nursery level right up to adult. The club is at the heart of my community. The club is…

The killing of civilians in Israel by Hamas was unjustifiable and was rightly condemned. In the brief time I have, I will focus on my real-life lived experience in Palestine last year. This time last year I spent some time in the West Bank. We could not go to Gaza as Israel imposed a ban on visiting the area. I witnessed at first hand the apartheid regime that Israel imposes on the Palestinian people. Freedom of movement is denied. Palestinians have to go through Israeli armed checkpoints just to go from A to B. Th…

Another budget day and another missed opportunity for mental health services. This is another letdown for the individuals accessing mental health services and their families. Since this Government was formed, waiting lists for primary and acute services have increased. In some cases, they have doubled. We have seen a lack of further investment in eating disorder services, early intervention in psychosis and perinatal mental health services. We have seen those waiting on such services left out in the cold and waitin…

Last month, I attended the 30th anniversary of Gaelscoil na Canóige in Clondalkin. It is a school I know very well. I was fortunate to have at least one of my children in the school for more than 20 years. For 30 years, the school has been operating in prefabs that are unsuitable. There has been a long campaign by parents, teachers and board members to get a new school building. Recently, there has been some movement on this but the school has had many false dawns in the past. I received a response to a parliamenta…

Since the recess, there have been several reports by the Mental Health Commission on child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. They have highlighted a failure in governance, risk management, clinical governance, staffing and access to treatment, among other matters. Overall, the reports are a damning indictment of how we care for vulnerable children. I ask for an update on the Government's response to the Mental Health Commission's report on CAMHS. Will the Government accept the 49 recommendations made by…

I want to give the Minister of State some facts. Waiting lists for initial assessments for CAMHS have almost doubled since the Minister of State took the reins in mental health. Hundreds of children have been waiting for more than a year for an appointment with CAMHS. The report also shows issues around monitoring of anti-psychotic medication. In some areas, only 50% of children had appropriate levels of monitoring of their antipsychotic medication. There are no national standards for monitoring this medication. Th…

The Minister of State mentioned 33% more referrals to CAMHS. She is right that there have been more referrals but there were also more children referred to CAMHS and not accepted because they did not meet the criteria. That is right across the board. It is different in different CHO areas. In one CHO area, the acceptance rate will be 60% or 70% but in the neighbouring CHO area, the acceptance rate will be an awful lot lower. We need to have uniformity of care because a postcode lottery of care has developed under t…

I have the legislation.

We are coming up to the budget. I would like to know why no additional funding was provided to the national clinical programmes in mental health in 2023. This meant there was no additional funding to expand national clinical programmes for self-harm and suicide, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, eating disorders or early intervention in psychosis. What does this mean for the timelines for completion of the expansion of the national clinical programmes? Will increased funding be delivered in budget 202…

According to the response I got on 20 July, national clinical programmes did not receive any funding for new posts to expand clinical programme services in 2023. We are approaching budget time and the Opposition Members have to turn into forensic accountants to try to go through what is being said and what is actually being delivered on the ground. Last year, the Minister of State tweeted that there was €72.8 million in additional funding for mental health. The budget book added up to €57 million - I think the Mini…

I spent the recess meeting several different groups and organisations. For example, I will go through some of the national clinical programmes mentioned. I met with Lucena CAMHS, which deals with ADHD. I also met with ADHD Ireland and Families for Reform of CAMHS. They all cited issues with waiting lists for young people with ADHD accessing mental health supports. Nothing the Minister of State has said gives me confidence that will improve. There are still only three public inpatient beds for adults with eating dis…

Children's mental health services and mental health services in general in this State are beyond crisis at this point. Successive Governments have failed to implement proper workforce planning and we now face staffing shortages. We need more qualified mental health staff coming through our universities. What efforts are being made to expand places in third-level courses for mental healthcare? What is the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science doing to assist third-level institu…

I spent the recess meeting organisations, staff and mental health services right across the State, including in Deputies Griffin and Healy-Rae's area in Kerry, meeting families affected by child and adolescent mental health services. One of the biggest things that came up was about retention of staff working in the mental health service. Social and economic conditions are getting worse and staff retention is a real problem. The Minister mentioned a target of 460 new places in the coming year. If Sinn Féin was in go…

I want to address one particular course that has been cancelled this year. The Minister might have notes on it. It is in Question No. 107. I will give the Minister a heads-up on that in case he has it there. The specialist master's degree on children's mental health in Trinity College Dublin has been cancelled this year. This master's degree in children's mental health provided at Trinity is open to people from a range of different backgrounds, including professions that work with children, adolescents and families…