Staff member attacked in Kildare constituency office, says Sinn Féin TD

A Sinn Féin TD has said a member of staff in her constituency office in Co Kildare was recently attacked.

Kildare South TD Patricia Ryan told the Dáil on Wednesday that she wanted to raise the attack that was “carried out on a member of staff in my constituency office” during which a 999 call was made to gardaí, “where continued attempts were made to de-escalate the situation”.

“The difficulties experienced by the 999 dispatchers to obtain local assistance is very concerning,” Ms Ryan said.

“What is equally concerning is the Government’s continued failure to provide adequate mental healthcare services to those who need it most and for clarity, this [incident] was in connection to a mental health services.

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“It is unacceptable that those pleading with the HSE to be admitted to mental health services are instead left to fend for themselves and highlights the urgent need for this Government to increase funding in mental health services and increased ambition in terms of Garda resources and recruitment.”

The Sinn Féin TD asked the Taoiseach what actions was the Government taking to improve mental health services and gardaí emergency response capacity.

In response, Mr Varadkar said he was sorry to hear about the incident that occurred in the constituency office.

The Fine Gael leader said there was funding this year to recruit 1,000 gardaí while the mental health budget was now “well over €1 billion a year”.

“Not that long ago, it was barely €800 million. So we’re doing those things and so long as there’s no fundamental change in economic policy or economic philosophy, we will be able to achieve the funding,” he added.