The Labour Party has descibed mental healthcare in Ireland as a "national shame" following the publication of an Amnesty International report today.
The report, Mental Illness: The Neglected Quarter, accuses the Government of failing to recognise good mental healthcare as a basic human right and said mental healthcare here is "seriously out of step" with international best practice.
Although acknowledging change has taken place over the past 50 years, the report also says advances have been slow and piece-meal.
In particular, it singles out mental health services for children and adolescents, the homeless, prisoners and other vulnerable groups as being particularly deficient.
"It should be a matter of national shame that the quality of mental health care in a prosperous and developed country like Ireland should be the subject of such damming criticism from a prestigious international organisation such as Amnesty," Labour spokesperson on health Ms Liz McManus said.
"It is clear that the level of funding for mental health is grossly inadequate at only 7 per cent of the total health spend".
Ms McManus is to raise issues contained in the report with the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, in the Dáil this week."An absolute priority must be the implementation of the long-promised commitment to transfer people with intellectual disabilities out of psychiatric hospitals and into appropriate community-based facilities," she said.