The president of the College of Psychiatrists has questioned the priorities of the finance minister in funding a train to Dublin Airport while services for carers are shambolic and mental health professionals are working in clinics with snails climbing up the walls.

The College of Psychiatrists has expressed serious concerns that comments made by singer Daniel O’Donnell’s wife Majella about psychiatrists’ fees could “deter those in extreme distress from seeking support or help”.

OVER the years, a squadron of able and committed politicians fled the health ministry without being able to record substantive, game-changing success or reform.

FAR too many people, individuals and communities, have been forced to come to terms with the terribly sad reality that a loved, but distraught, relative has killed another, or others, in their family and then taken their own life. This all-too-regular tragedy is made even more difficult if children are, as they so often are, victims. There have been at least 27 such tragedies in Ireland since 2000.

MODAFINIL is just the latest ‘smart drug’ or ‘nootropic’ to be used illicitly to enhance intellectual performance.

The College of Psychiatrists has advised its members not to take part in assessments of pregnant women concerned about suicidal ideation, under the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act.

Politicians are opposing any ban on alcohol sponsorship of sporting events and instead want an “addiction” fund set up and stronger regulations for marketing drink.

DEVIOUS women and manipulative psychiatrists were recurring themes at the Oireachtas Health Committee hearings yesterday.

A leading doctor and barrister has warned that under the draft abortion legislation, a woman who wants to terminate her pregnancy because she is suicidal could have grounds to take a discrimination case on the grounds of mental health.

JOHN McCARTHY, the founder of the advocacy group, Mad Pride, has challenged the country’s leading psychiatrists to prove that he ever suffered a mental illness to justify him being locked up and forcibly medicated.

MODELS under 16 will be banned from London Fashion Week catwalks under new rules proposed yesterday.