Failing mental health services: Details of crisis all too familiar

On Saturday, we described how a man committed suicide in prison. Sean Hayes Barrett was mentally ill and should have been in a hospital where his urgent needs might have been met. In the interim, an election opinion poll has been published. It must make disheartening reading for the Government, as they are 12 points behind Fianna Fáil.

It would be preposterous to suggest this poll was driven by anger over failing mental health services in a country with the resources to provide them. However, as this scandal, and others, show our public administration seems to have neither the capacity or determination needed to provide them. It is an example of public need — and aspiration — falling because it has not been prioritised by government, any government.