As I was driving to Dublin today, I listened with interest and immense sadness to a report on RTE Radio 1 regarding people who were suicidal or who had attempted suicide having difficulty accessing appropriate psychiatric services, especially in out-of-hours times. The programme outlined cases of people in these situations who had presented to emergency departments of their local hospital as recommended on the HSE website.

They were triaged by a nurse on duty and in many cases had only a telephone conversation with a consultant psychiatrist before being discharged as medically fit. Once discharged some of these people went on to commit suicide. This is not a new issue and indeed it is one I raised here in February with the then Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Deputy McEntee. The discussion on the radio today was particularly timely because I received a call yesterday from a family in a similar situation. A girl in her early 20s who attempted suicide several weeks ago, had a violent outburst towards her parents on Friday night and was taken by ambulance at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning to a local psychiatric hospital, spent the day there and was discharged and sent home in a taxi at 10 p.m. on Saturday, some 17 hours later.

If I or anybody else presented at the emergency department on a Friday evening with cardiac arrest, a brain haemorrhage, a stroke or any other severe physical illness and had been discharged and subsequently died, people would rightfully ask questions. Why should it be any different for a person presenting with severe mental health issues?

We know that every community in Ireland is affected by suicide and self-harm and that the emotional turmoil associated with such ideation does not confine itself to out-of-hours' times. Nobody suicidal should ever be turned away. Will the Leader please ask the new Minister of State with responsibility for mental health to come to the Chamber and have a debate and hear comments from the Senators with regard to specific steps that can be taken to fix the problems associated with access to help, especially out-of-hours?