Last year's Mental Health Commission's report entitled, Acute Mental Healthcare in Hospital Emergency Departments in Ireland, confirmed, as other speakers noted, that emergency mental health care is simply not available in most of our emergency departments. I am repeating myself here but every year more than 50,000 people in acute mental distress present to emergency departments. A number of Deputies referred to this but it is important to emphasise it. What the report shows is widespread inconsistency in the quality of care people receive. Hospital managers acknowledge rising demand. The report highlighted, among other things, that eight emergency departments lacked even the most basic appropriate spaces for crisis mental health assessments. Professionals, families and other advocates have been very clear that the current model is simply not working. People in crisis are being assessed in totally unsuitable chaotic environments, where access to timely specialist care depends too heavily on where people happen to live. As such, I wholeheartedly support calls in this motion for a dedicated mental health emergency room service in every model 3 and model 4 hospital, separate from overcrowded emergency departments. I also support establishing an expert review of the role of model 2 hospitals and investment in a network of specialist crisis centres, including at community level. This is a fundamental point, both in terms in emergency departments in general but also in mental health services. People should not necessarily have to go to an emergency department to access emergency mental health services. Care could be community-based. If we had a nationwide network as part of the primary care centre system, people would not have to attend hospital emergency departments for many less complex medical procedures. That is another day's debate but community care is required. All of this will require proper resourcing and will not happen overnight. The Minister of State and previous speakers pointed to some areas of improvement. While improvements have happened, a lot more is needed within a shorter timeframe if the Government is to finally deliver the safe, rapid-access mental health emergency care promised in its policy report, Sharing the Vision, for the period from 2020 to 2030. Such care would ensure every person in a crisis gets timely invention in a setting that provides them with privacy and, dare I say it, basic human dignity.

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