Motion re Mental Health Services

Speaking in the Dáil regarding Mental Health Services

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and to indicate my support for it. A Vision for Change, launched in 2006, was a template for a community-based, progressive and modern mental health care system. Today, ten years later, there is a crisis in our mental health services arising from, and compounded by, the failure to implement the policy set out in A Vision for Change.

The mental health services in my constituency of Tipperary are a case in point and highlight the malaise in the service currently, both locally and nationally. Despite the best efforts of staff, the service is dysfunctional. The Minister of State’s predecessor, the former Labour Party Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch, closed the inpatient unit at South Tipperary General Hospital, St. Michael’s unit, and transferred south Tipperary patients to Kilkenny and north Tipperary patients to Ennis. That was in 2012. She sold that closure on the basis of a promised quid pro quo that we would have a Rolls-Royce community-based service.

Three years later we have the worst of all worlds. We have no inpatient service, a issue to which I will return, and our community services are understaffed, under-resourced and underfunded. Our community-based teams, multidisciplinary teams supposedly, are struggling to provide a safe service. They are deficient in terms of staff numbers across all categories – nursing, medical and paramedical staff members. The promised provision of a crisis house has not materialised. The inpatient service has been transferred to Kilkenny for people from south Tipperary and to Ennis for people from north Tipperary. That means assessments of patients have to take place in a busy overcrowded accident and emergency department with no privacy or confidentiality. The unit in Kilkenny is overcrowded regularly, there is difficulty gaining admission, and if one gains admission, there is the practice of early discharge. The situation is completely unacceptable.

I call on the Minister of State to implement A Vision for Change immediately, including the 24/7 services, to recruit additional nursing, medical and paramedical staff for the multidisciplinary teams and to reopen St. Michael’s unit in Tipperary. I acknowledge the work done by the various voluntary organisations in this area, the community consumer mental health panels, the C-Saw suicide awareness group and others, and thank them for it.

 

Posted by Workers and Unemployed Action Group in Mental Health Services, South Tipperary General Hospital

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South Tipperary General Hospital urgently needs 40 additional beds to rescue patients from trolley chaos at the hospital.

These additional beds are absolutely essential and would make a huge difference for patients and staff. The Winter Health Service Initiative of the Government is generally disappointing. It is particularly so as regarding extra beds at South Tipperary General Hospital. While the modular/hotel type beds proposal is included, it is not definitive and is only referred to as 1 of 2 options. These beds must be approved and delivered without delay as we approach the autumn/winter period. The Minister for Health, Simon Harris T.D. will be visiting the hospital in October and he must formally confirm these additional beds then. Should the Minister fail to do so it will be clear that the government commitment is not serious. I call on all stakeholders including all political representatives, national and local, to rally behind the hospital to ensure that the additional beds are delivered. The last thing we need is political wrangling, point scoring and disunity. If these beds are not delivered, the Minister and the Government should be warned that People Power will be back on the streets of Clonmel. The people of Tipperary are determined that hospital patients be treated with respect and are provided with quality services at South Tipperary General Hospital.

Seamus Healy T.D. 13/9/2016 Tel 087 2802199

Note on Fit out Option

Fit out space within new build under construction. This refers to the building under construction for CT and MRI Scanning Units. The 1st floor of this building is currently a shell. This proposal would be totally inadequate, would not address the serious overcrowding at the hospital and is a cul de sac. It is currently earmarked for Day Surgery and would be robbing Peter to pay Paul. At most, it would accommodate 5 beds going nowhere near addressing the overcrowding problem. There were 28 patients on trolleys yesterday and it has been as high as the mid 40’s.

Posted by Workers and Unemployed Action Group in South Tipperary General Hospital, Statement

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Apple – Healy only Tipperary TD to vote against Government Motion.

Seamus Healy TD was the only Tipperary TD To Vote Against The Government Motion To Appeal the Award of 13 billion Plus Interest to Ireland in Corporation Tax at the Special Sitting of Dáil Eireann.

Deputy Healy said “I am proud to have voted against the return of in excess of 13 billion Euro to Apple. I want the money to be used to address the severe crises in housing, health, education and other public services for the needy. Sweetheart deals and allowing corporate entities to avoid paying their fair share of tax have serious consequences for ordinary people. It is not a victimless crime.

We have, for instance, a serious housing emergency, with more than 100,000 families on housing waiting lists, and a growing homelessness problem, with 2,000 children living in emergency accommodation. Families continue to be evicted from their homes by banks owned by the State. Hundreds of thousands of people are on hospital waiting lists and chaos prevails in hospital emergency departments. Home help services, home care packages and education are being cut and the list goes on. Low and middle income families are also being fleeced by the universal social charge, house tax, inheritance tax, VAT, student fees and the water tax. Fine Gael, the “Endapendents”, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party are betraying the Irish people by refusing to accept €13 billion with interest from the €228 billion which Apple has resting in subsidiaries with no tax residence anywhere in the world.

The same politicians meekly gave €64 billion of citizens’ money to large international investors who gambled on Irish bank bonds and imposed austerity on our people They now want to give back the guts of €19 billion to one of the largest companies in the world, thus leaving our public services in deep crisis”.

Seamus Healy T.D. Tel 087 2802199

Posted by Workers and Unemployed Action Group in Apple, Statement

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