Deputy James Browne is not here. I call Deputy Ó Murchú.

My thoughts are with the family in Dundalk who are burying a man today. He was a husband, father and brother who was hugely involved in the community. On Sunday, we heard the sad news of his suicide. This is not the first time I have dealt with this issue. I spoke with the family and they said that the difficult part was that this man presented himself to the mental services in Crosslanes, Drogheda, on the Wednesday before last and sought help. He was not admitted. I accept that hospitalisation and residential care are not always the most suitable options and I am not a medical expert. However, I am told that the home care team made a call the next day and stated that it would be a few weeks before it could deal with him, due to Covid-19 and, I must assume, a lack of resources. I am not looking to vilify services but I call on the Government to assess protocols and resources to ensure there is no wrong door when someone presents for mental health help and that the necessary care and connections are put in place. We need a full audit of mental health services. We also need to deal with the chronic underfunding and a system that is failing our people.

Over the last number of years, when the Tánaiste was the Taoiseach and Jim Daly was Minister of State in the Department of Health, I raised the situation in the psychiatric unit in Crosslanes. I have visited that unit numerous times with people from Dundalk and the surrounding areas and the service there was absolutely dreadful. I once brought a young fellow up there with his mother and six hours later he was running around a car park in the nude. We ended up in the Garda station and we had to get a doctor to section him. Two years ago, I also went there with the man to whom Deputy Ó Murchú referred and his sister, who was having serious problems. We have spent millions of euro in Crosslanes and we are getting nothing. It is a five-star treatment centre and yet a man is being buried today, as have other people in the area. It is about time someone conducted a national audit of the situation, including how many people have been in there in last number of years and how many of them committed suicide since they left the unit.

I thank the Deputy.

Can we get an investigation in the Crosslanes, the amount of money spent there and the number of people who have committed suicide?

I have a list of names but I am letting extra Deputies in on this matter. I call Deputy Paul Donnelly.

On the same issue, there was also a tragic incident over the weekend in the constituency the Tánaiste and I represent. I have spoken with the Garda, the local authority and local people about it. I am not going to go into it because it is fresh in the mind. I worked for Tusla and the HSE for a number of years and on many occasions, I have seen young people and adults presenting themselves to hospitals in dire straits. Their mental health had completely collapsed and they went to those hospitals looking for help. They are sometimes waiting upwards of 24 or 48 hours. Two weeks ago, up to six people were waiting 16 hours to see a psychiatrist. The programme for Government contains huge promises in this area and I appeal to the Tánaiste to follow through on them. People are in dire straits across the board. They are looking for help and they need it now.

I do not know the details of the individual case raised by Deputies Ó Murchú and Fitzpatrick or the particular service that was mentioned but I am sorry to hear that story and my heart goes out to that man and his family. I wish to pass on my condolences to them at this time. I will not comment on the individual case or the service as I do not know anything about them but I will let the Minister know this was raised in the Chamber today. We have made a huge progress on mental health and suicide prevention in recent years. For the first time ever, the budget for this year exceeds €1 billion and the national anti-suicide strategy is being implemented. In fact, the number of people taking their lives in Ireland in the last year or two is around 30% lower than it was ten years ago. We are going in the right direction in that regard but that is no comfort to any family that has recently experienced suicide. It is worth putting on the record of the Dáil that that progress is being made.

We need to be careful what we say about services and staff. I have worked in healthcare and with patients with mental illness. It is very hard to assess whether or not people will take their life if one does not admit them, or after they are discharged. There is no X-ray or blood test for it so it is not like other areas of medicine. It based on a clinical judgment and we should be very careful that we never stray into blaming doctors, nurses, psychiatrists or particular services for bad outcomes. It is unfortunately not that simple.