My home county of Wexford has been left behind in many facets in the past two decades, especially when it comes to mental health services. As far back as 2009 or 2010, St. Senan's Hospital was no longer permitted to take in new acute mental health patients, which immediately resulted in the closure of ten mental health acute beds. Mary Harney was the Minister for health at the time and ten new acute mental health beds were promised in the five-year plan, A Vision for Change. They were to be located in Wexford General Hospital as a new acute mental health unit. Some 16 years later we are still waiting on that broken promise. County Wexford still does not have a dedicated, 24-7 acute adult inpatient unit despite a population of almost 180,000 citizens. There are currently 1,400 children in the Wexford-Wicklow area waiting to be seen by CAMHS. What is even more disturbing is they are waiting over 52 weeks for their first appointment. The Minister of State knows, and indeed everybody knows, that emergency departments are not a fit place for people experiencing emergency mental health problems, especially people who may have suicidal tendencies. The least that should happen is that every model 3 and model 4 hospital must have a separate emergency mental health room with appropriate specialist professionals. Investment in mental health crisis assessment and intervention must be copper-fastened and ring-fenced. Again, I ask for a commitment to a 24-7 acute mental hospital adult unit in Wexford and for the ten-bed unit promised by consecutive governments since 2010 be facilitated in Wexford General Hospital. I welcome that the Government is not opposing the motion.

Sentiment score: -0.13