In view of the recent tragedy in Wexford, I call on the committee to prepare a report on the lack of provision of services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One of the common themes in these cases is that those involved try to access services, particularly at weekends. Many suicide attempts are made and families are often distressed outside the normal 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. working hours. There is an onus on the committee to produce a report on these services and forward it to the HSE. When people cry for help, there should be someone to listen and not a voicemail message. As recently as yesterday evening, the Irish Mental Health Alliance highlighted the number of people attending accident and emergency departments where no one is present to meet them and being forced to wait 12 or 24 hours for attention because personnel are not available.
This is not good enough. The response from the HSE is that liaison psychiatric nurses are deployed in X number of accident and emergency departments but the reality is a nurse only works 39 hours and, therefore, 129 hours are uncovered in such departments in any given week. More than one nurse is needed to provide full cover. The committee should produce a report and make recommendations in this area. Accident and emergency departments only provide a nominal service. This is a critical issue and tragedies such as that in Wexford must be avoided.