We will come back to the issue and the proposals, and write to party leaders. The Dáil needs to take control of this issue and inject urgency into it.

I want to raise the issue of the publication of the Mental Health Commission's annual report. Once again, it highlights deficiencies that are seriously affecting the issue of children being admitted to adult mental health units in the State. We see from the report that 84 children were admitted to adult mental health units last year. The head of the commission, Mr. John Farrelly, said the placement of any child in any adult unit indicates a service provision gap. He goes on to say that no child should access mental health services through a unit that was not equipped to deal with their needs. I am sure the Tánaiste will share the view that this is totally unacceptable. It has gone on for far too long and it is time to end this practice once and for all. It is time to deliver on A Vision for Change. How many years is it that we have this promise to deliver the number of beds that are required? It is time to make sure all beds are commissioned. Only 44 of the 74 beds were operational last year. Will the Tánaiste outline to those children and others what is the plan to make sure no child has to access mental health services through adult services?

I thank the Deputy. I have just come from the launch of the report. We are aware of the issue. To answer on the issue of young people being admitted to adult services, sometimes the issues can be multifactorial and the reason for it can be down to geography or the particular age of the person, for example, somebody could be 18 and a half. While I am not defending the practice, I am simply saying that, in some circumstances, it is beyond our control. In other circumstances, it is not acceptable and we do not want to see it happening.

There is a protocol in place when a young person is admitted to an adult unit. The head of the HSE mental health service has to be notified, as does the Mental Health Commission, and there are very strict guidelines and protocols to protect the young person. Ultimately, it is a capacity issue in some cases. We will take possession of the Central Mental Hospital in Portrane towards the end of this year, probably in November, and it will hopefully be commissioned early next year. That will obviously help with capacity across the country because it will take some of the more acute cases. Therefore, we have improvements in capacity coming down the stream. We obviously have staffing challenges, of which the Deputy is aware, in some of the places where we have capacity.

We are aware of the challenge. The Department and the HSE are continuing to work towards ensuring that practice is kept to an absolute minimum.