Only three weeks ago, the Mental Health Commission report on the mental health unit at Bantry General Hospital instructed the closure of one quarter of its beds; a loss of seven beds in total. This would have been a devastating blow to mental services in west Cork that serve from Kinsale to Ardrum and parts of County Kerry.

The report by the Mental Health Commission recommended the closure of the beds following an inspection of the hospital. However, more astonishing is that the same issue of non-compliance was raised in 2019 and 2021 after an inspection and no funds were made available to carry out urgent works in this time.

The Taoiseach visited Bantry General Hospital on 29 August last. I for one will always welcome a leader of our country to such an outstanding hospital. However, senior people in the hospital asked me days before the Taoiseach came what the purpose of his visit was, as the injury room he opened had been opened nine years previously. I, like others, held out hope that, on the day the Taoiseach came to unveil the plaque, he would announce an exact date for work to start on the endoscopy and stroke units, two desperately needed upgraded services in Bantry. While the Taoiseach did say they would have to be built, he came and went without a date, leaving no hope for many people.

Fast forward 15 days after his visit, when he promised extra services in Bantry General Hospital and we heard the announcement that one quarter of the mental health beds were to close in Bantry General Hospital, thus sending shock waves throughout west Cork. This decision is now being appealed by the HSE.

When the Taoiseach visited Bantry General Hospital on 29 August last, did he visit the mental health unit in the hospital grounds? I am sure he did not. Worse again, when the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Deputy Butler, visited Bantry General Hospital on 10 July with the Fianna Fáil circus, did she visit the mental health unit in Bantry General Hospital? If both the Taoiseach and Minister of State did not, all I have to say is shame on them for turning their backs on the mental health unit. Questions are being asked. Did the Taoiseach already know that the mental health unit in Bantry General Hospital was in trouble? If he did not know it, surely the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health should have had some idea of what was going on and should, at the very least, have called in to speak to the incredible staff who do Trojan work in the unit. I will read a quote from the Minister of State, who said during her visit to the medical side of Bantry General Hospital that:

We often hear of the apparent downgrading of ... [Bantry] hospital and headlines about how the HSE want to close it. Judging by this visit, ... [this] could ... [not] be further from the truth.

Fast forward eight weeks from her visit and we almost had the destruction of the mental health unit under her watch due to the incompetence of many.

The Taoiseach has been made aware of the crisis in the mental health unit at Bantry General Hospital over the past few weeks in the Dáil. He had the chance to find out what went wrong and what will now be done to deliver for the many people of west Cork who genuinely suffer mental health issues. During the formation of this Government, I, along with my Rural Independent Group colleagues, sat around the table with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, and Green Party leader, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I asked for two things only. I made it clear that I wanted two things for west Cork. One was a ministry for fisheries, which the Taoiseach failed to deliver, and we saw where that got us. The other was a cast-iron guarantee that Bantry General Hospital would never be downgraded during the term of this Government. The time has come and we have now seen this has not been delivered. Will the Taoiseach give the people of west Cork a cast-iron guarantee in the Dáil today that this Government will give adequate funding to the HSE to retain all 18 beds in the mental health unit in Bantry General Hospital?

First, the Deputy is correct to say it was raised in the Dáil.

When?

Deputy Christopher Sullivan raised the issue of the decision of the Mental Health Commission to put a restriction on the registration of the mental health care and recovery approval centre at Bantry General Hospital, reducing the centre's total number of registered beds from 18 to 11. As the Deputy knows, the HSE has appealed that now and it is in the District Court. I will come back to that in a second.

People in Bantry were quite happy that morning in August when I visited. I got a good welcome there. I do not think I left with people having no hope, as the Deputy suggested. People were quite confident about the endoscopy unit and further investment, which we have allocated through the HSE.

The Deputy has a great habit of moving on the issue. It is no longer about how the investment is going to happen; I must now come down with the actual precise date on which the builders will be off the site and so on. Be that as it may, I have a good record with Bantry General Hospital. As the then Minister for Health and Children, I put very far-reaching investment into that hospital, which has stood the test of time in terms of the service it provides for that wider region. We have always maintained it is a key hospital for a vast hinterland right down to the Beara Peninsula, given its geographic location, and acknowledged the necessity of various interventions. It works very well with Cork University Hospital, CUH, and within the south-west hospital grouping, which is important in terms of the right treatment at the right time.

In respect of the decision by the Mental Health Commission, the Deputy knows that is an independent body. From time to time in the House, we ignore the reality of decision-making by a body such as the Mental Health Commission. On other occasions, we will ask those regulators or those bodies to go in and give a very objective assessment of facilities. Sometimes, we do not like it because it leads to decisions that are awkward or challenging. It does at times drive standards and quality, however, and therein lies the tension. It does create huge issues for the HSE and the service. That is why the HSE is appealing the decision. The HSE maintains that it cannot afford to reduce the number of beds and it will challenge the interpretation of the regulation of 2022. It believes it could have broader implications for other approved centres in the community healthcare organisation, CHO, areas and, indeed, nationally. That is where it lies right now. These issues must be resolved. The bodies that make decisions cannot just be ignored and the advice they give cannot be ignored either.

Investment continues in mental health, however. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, secured significant additional resources in yesterday's budget to continue to invest in mental health facilities. Deputy Collins asked if I visited the centre. It is an acute and enduring mental health centre; it would not have been appropriate for me to do so given the privacy needs of the patients.

I thank the Taoiseach very much for his reply. I have actually visited the unit and I did respect the privacy of the patients; I stayed at the door and spoke to the staff there. I have gone in to see patients because I have sometimes been asked to do so. The Taoiseach said an independent body made that decision. That is fair enough. However, the independent body made that decision in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. It continued to make that decision and no funding was given. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, received an extra pittance. I am not inspired by the Taoiseach's answer. He is giving me further doubts that the full 18-bed mental health unit will be up and running in Bantry General Hospital as it should be. It is now 25 years since the mental health unit was opened in Bantry. The unit in Bantry had shared bedroom facilities in line with the standards 25 years ago, but the standards have changed and the unit in Bantry has not received the funding from the HSE or the Government to make the necessary changes. The Taoiseach during his term in office has failed to give a start date for the endoscopy and stroke units in the hospital. If what I heard every time it was mentioned that a block had been put down for that endoscopy unit were true, by God, there would be ten of them in west Cork already.

The Taoiseach has a chance to redeem himself here. I will ask him once again. Will he give me a cast-iron guarantee for the people of west Cork that funding will be provided for urgent work on the mental health unit in Bantry General Hospital to keep the 18-beds that are there at present? The Taoiseach is right about Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, whom he said raised the issue in this Chamber. He was with the Taoiseach that day in Bantry General Hospital, however. They both walked beyond the Bantry mental health unit and shamefully turned their backs on it. It is time to deliver.

I do not think the Deputy should call into question the integrity or honourable motivation that Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan applies to this work. He has been a very strong advocate for Bantry General Hospital and continues to be.

Except when he visited.

Deputy Collins knows that and should acknowledge it.

Did he visit?

Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan fights very hard for west Cork more generally and he was very anxious that I would visit Bantry General Hospital.

The same as Carrick-on-Suir.

It does mean something to the people who work in a hospital and so on that Government Members visit and listen.

Deputy Collins knows the endoscopy and stroke units are happening. Much design work has to go into all these projects. They will happen, just as other investments happened in Bantry General Hospital. The stroke units have been very effective across the country and they will make a big difference. The endoscopy suite will also make a big difference. They are welcome developments in themselves.

As regards mental health, it is very important that investment would go into the acute facility. Equally, however, investment must go into community mental health. A strong primary mental health capacity and community mental health capacity is very often far more effective because it prevents the need for people to be taken into acute units. I met many mental health experts who argued that, if we relied more on acute services, it reflected a failure prior to that at primary and community levels. Therefore, as we build up and modernise the acute service-----

There are 18 beds.

-----we also need to develop community and primary care centres.