Former RTÉ sports broadcaster and Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn has spoken in the Seanad of her reasons for getting involved in politics.
In her maiden speech to the Upper House, the Taoiseach’s nominee said she planned to highlight the issue of “dual diagnosis in relation to addiction and mental health”.
Ms Ní Chuilinn spoke about her brother Cormac who died by suicide in 2013.
“Eleven and a half years ago, I lost my brother to suicide, not long after he was turned away from a psychological facility due to his decade-long struggle with addiction,” Ms Ní Chuilinn.
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“Cormac was my younger brother and he is one of the reasons that I sit in this House. I was very proud of him, and he would be very proud of me today.”
Calling for a Seanad debate on dual diagnosis, Ms Ní Chuilinn said “we are failing a cohort of people in this country who have found themselves on that knife edge”.
Outlining the issue she said “a person with a dual diagnosis is someone who presents with a concurrent mental health disorder and a substance abuse disorder”.
“But we haven’t found a way to treat these people in a holistic way. You cannot enter a rehabilitation treatment centre if you take any kind of medication, even if that medication is for a mental illness,” Ms Ní Chuilinn said.
“But you cannot get mental illness treated until your addiction substances have been addressed. It is a systemic failing, and we are failing people when they are at their most vulnerable.”
She wanted to work with people across the Seanad on issues “that are important to the people we represent, but also important to the people who perhaps feel that they do not have representation in the Oireachtas. I feel that we have a responsibility to use our voices in that way”.
Ms Ní Chuilinn highlighted comments by Social Democrats Senator Patricia Stephenson the previous day, on the first sitting of the new Seanad.
“She spoke so eloquently yesterday about living in peace and helping people find peace,” Ms Ní Chuilinn said. “This is just another example of that. Hundreds and thousands of people with dual diagnosis do find peace, but not in life.”
[ Who is Evanne Ní Chuilinn? From RTÉ sports broadcaster to Fine Gael SenatorOpens in new window ]
Ms Ní Chuilinn said she wanted to work with Senators “not just to raise the issue of dual diagnosis but to address it and to navigate a way to help the people who feel they have been deemed beyond help”.
Fine Gael Seanad leader Seán Kyne said he would request a debate as the issue was “very worthy”, following her “personal testimony about her brother Cormac and issues of dual diagnosis and mental health and substance abuse”.
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