Mattie McGrath criticises HSE over lost long-stay mental health beds

Martin Coole, apologies for missing my start, but I haven't managed the scale of bilocation yet, I was in Lister House, and the traffic is very heavy, so I ran the last bit, I'd be like Ronnie Delaney, I'd be fit for the Olympics, Minister Butler, I have wished you well in your portfolio, and I do wish you well, I know you make efforts, genuine efforts to try and help with mental health and budgets and in a caring way, and I welcome this move from what we've known as the Central Mental Hospital to Port Toronto News site, and I know it involves the Land Development Agency or whatever, but any moves we can make to try and give some empowerment and some respect and a listening ear to people that have psychotic tendencies or mental health issues is very, very, very welcome, so I mean I listened to Deputy McNamara on the way over, and I've listened to him a lot on these issues, because he has been consistent since the start of COVID, since the first month of the winter, looking for data to be collated, and as I have been, but he's far more eloquent and in tune with it than I am, and it's very, very difficult, I know that there were, some of the workers were deemed not being essential workers, and they were taken off for that reason, and then were taken off for very important issues and places, and still there, and some very specialist people, who in their own right do a wonderful job, and the people that they need, young and old, but the services that they were taken away from, actually could actually create mental health issues, because, you know what I mean, autotropic and specialist therapists and all that, they're big issues for the listeners especially, and you know, I was talking to a colleague of mine last night, who was aware for a child, a 14 year old, who was in a very, very distressed state, and boarding school, and look, that traumatises everybody around him, but the data, as I said, for any information, like trying to get information, is like the first season, or the third season, seeker of Fatima, and to try and get information on mental health, shouldn't be that difficult, and why have we such a conglomerate in the HSE, and the Department of Health, that around the house, and mind the dresser, that's what it seems to be, keep the circle going, keep the paper replies going, and most of them are meaningless, and they even get new adjectives and words, they want to script writers in there, that have experience in words that say nothing, long words, that say nothing, and I remember as well, the Mayor references, in the 2011, or 2007 to 11 government, they did ring fence funding, in a big blaze of glory, a great aplomb, but when you drill down into it, that money was taken into other parts of the HSE, many other parts of the HSE, and we know best in Tipperary, about this, I'm not saying we know better than anybody else, because we lost our long stay beds, one of the hospitals, institution of St. Michael's, on the same grounds, as St. Joseph's, now named again by, and I stream up by the HSE, South Tipperary General Hospital, whatever was wrong, when we watched under the Watch for Life, St. Joseph, I don't know, he looked after many of us, and still does, and if they want to appreciate them, and pray to them, or whatever, but we have to get rid of all this, so we lost it, and we were promised the sun, moon, the stars by Minister Maloney at the time, and I railed against it, and then Minister Kathleen Lynch put it in hat, and we lost our hospital, and we were promised the rolls rise, of service in the community, and I salute the people that are involved in the community, but they are unable, and not have enough members, enough time, of facilities, we have, we're trying to get upgraded works to our, to our crisis house, going on forever, I believe it's starting now, I hope, in the first quarter of next year, but we need long stay service beds in Tipperary, because the people of South Tipperary, and it's a big area, Count Kola, have to travel to Kilkenny, people north of the county, have to travel to Innes, and those two places are full already, over full, and not that they don't want Tipperary people, but, they just can't cope with them, in Kilkenny, they cope, they have the south east region, the cattle of Kilkenny, and indeed Wexford to look after, as well as Waterford, and then we're, pardon, the one on the hind tit, in Tipperary, and we don't ever want to be in the hind tit, in Tipperary, we're entitled to our place, a rightful place, in the queue, of services, for people with mental health issues, and Minister, I know you visited us, I met us twice, and listened to us, I know you also went and visited the facility in Kilkenny, which was brought to an atrocious court case, atrocious things happened there, because they're understaffed, and poorly managed, and lack of resources, so that has changed, but you did say something to us, that I dispute furiously, and so do all of us, that you found it was under capacity, no it's not under capacity, it's all the time, my stories are from mental health users, their families, the consultants, and the doctors, is that it's almost impossible to get in there, and when you're in, you're not halfway through your treatment, and you're out, and there's some awful incidents in Waterford as well, I know that, I read about them, court cases, I heard about them, but I know you've got delivered beds recently for Waterford, and rightly so, I don't deny any county, they're all entitled to fair play, but especially vulnerable people, and we need to have our long-stay beds back, and Minister Jim Daly said in the House, several times to me, and others, that we had a deficit of 15 beds in South Tipperary, and we're going to get them, so did the HSE officials at meetings, but now Minister, you're saying a different thing, shows some measures, that there's enough, and won't be getting any beds in Tipperary, that is not going to be accepted, people in Tipperary are entitled to these beds, because we have no public transport, you take it from Emily, down to Key Kinney, it's an awful distance, or from Monard, or from the Vam-Limic Junction, there's huge areas, distance, and the other way from our trip to go up into Ennis, is when a loved one, or a friend, or whatever, goes into one of these institutions, they need help, they're down, they're low, they will recover with the support of the medical services, and specialist services, but they also want buddies, and the buddies, I mean family, or friends, or partners, or whoever, to support them, they visit them, but they can't visit them in Key Kinney, they have to get a taxi out from the bus station, out to the hospital, to St. Luke's, adjacent to St. Luke's, and it's just not possible, and then the enormous amount of money that's put in, costing the Gardaí, with GardaCast, bringing people, who have, whether they go in voluntary, or in voluntary, to be transferred to Key Kinney, it's unbelievable, and enormous amount of time, and costs, and waste of time, of the consultants travelling to and fro, from Tipperary to Key Kinney, and from Tipperary to Ennis, so, there's huge waste in the system, and I'm appealing to you, Minister, this evening, as well, we're bringing this out, and shaking up the, you know, and shining a light on the middle health services, here, and, and, and, and, the facilities in Port Grain, but, we need to deal with the waste, we did, at the road, part of the road's race model, was a taxi service, there were two or three taxis hired, and then there was a row with the P and A nurses, because they wanted, if it was an involuntary case, and they wanted three nurses, and next one Friday evening, about six o'clock, one of the providers rang me, he got an email, at 20 past five, services are no longer required, so, you either walk, cry, or run, or, or, or, or swim, to get any, or get a gather cab, but you can't get transport, so, there's huge deficiencies, and that is unfair to these people, they're, after all, there are, our siblings, our friends, our family, our, our community people, and they need those services, and they have to get them, so, I'm appealing to you, Minister, along with what you're doing here in Port Grain, along with the compassionate attitude you have, to ensure that beds are put back to the Clonmel, long-stay beds, we're not looking for them forever, but, when they're there, people need it, a couple of weeks, or, or a month, maybe, they need them, the crisis house is fine, but it's small, it needs to be extended, and the community will be, their work will be easier, then, because they'll have a continuity, and they will have a place to treat them, if they have to be treated, so, it's, it's very, very serious, as I said, and the pressures that COVID have now added on top of, on top of, even the students, and six-year students, I had one myself last year, and she's, thank God, she's a wonderful little girl, but, it was so difficult for them, the uncertainty, and the students now, they're in college, and sent home, to work from home, and the family's trying to scrape up the money, and they did do for the first semester, now they're getting calls in the mail for the next semester, and they're not living there, so, they're living at home, and, you know, you have to use all the facilities at home, and they're not able to use the facilities in college, so, all those pressures, the pressures now that are on business people, when the business, the business have been shut, by diktats from the government, it's the coronian measures, I call it, by any account, we're the best country in Europe, we're told regularly, by the minister, managing COVID, we're the most severe restrictions, what's been done to the publicans, what's been done to the hairdressers, what's been done to the dancing teachers, thank God, we're fighting to get them back, and they are slowly getting back, but, it's, it's, it's not in short, they're tyranny, and the sweeping powers, and it's going to go on until next July, we wanted a review in February, we didn't get it, so, I mean, and the pressures, the moratoriums in the banks were lifted, let them ride in to the wild west, all guns blazing, terrorising people, that's what they're doing, when you're stating to choose and terrorising people, it's not stating to, it's a choosing that are supported by the state, we almost own one of the banks, and they're doing that to people, and it shouldn't be doing it, so, I'm appealing to your better judgment, and your kind disposition, to try and empathise with these people, I can, I'm not an expert on it, but, I know my late mother was in St. Michael, and she availed of it, and many other people did, and it was a wonderful institution, and Minister Lynch will never forgive her, she said, to set in stone, written in blood, that they could, to be closed. Now they've spent, you've spent £1.9 million on it, upgrading for COVID, and you say, it's unsuitable for our mental health patients, and when COVID is gone, we're hoping to be gone, then it won't be suitable for our mental health patients. That's kind of nuts, un-joined up thinking, and disgraceful, and wasteful spending, that shouldn't be allowed to go on, so, I wish you well with this project here today, I thank the countercaller for allowing me in, because I could have missed my slides, so, and I look forward to your answers. Promise. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.