Galway Bay FM Newsroom - A Galway TD has called for mental health statistics to be made readily available for analysis.
Sinn Fein Galway West TD Mairead Farrell has raised concerns about transparency issues which she says are hampering the work of elected representatives.
It comes a Deputy Farrell recently submitted a question to the Health Minister, asking how many deaths in County Galway were due to drug and alcohol overdose between 2017 and 2020.
In response the Department said the Primary Care Service had not identified any such deaths in this period.
Meanwhile, she says a query submitted by her Sinn Fein colleague Mark Ward TD, regarding the number of deaths by suicide in 2020, also went unanswered.
Deputy Farrell argues the country is facing a mental health emergency which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
She says the extent of crisis cannot be fully evaluated without transparency and access to the relevant data:
