This week, Bressie launched his new book "Me, My Mate and Jeffrey" in which he chronicles his secret battle with depression which destroyed his relationships and could have destroyed his career. 

In a candid and revealing interview, Bressie revealed to The Colette Fitzpatrick Show just how tough it was to be a teenager secretly battling his inner demons - once going so far as to break his own arm as a form of self-harm. 

He also told Colette that while there have been many positive steps to destigmatising mental health issues, he said our mental health system is nowhere near able to cope. 

He said: "At the moment our mental health services are nowhere near where they need to be. Absolutely nowhere near it.

"The fact is, I don’t think they’re actually ready for the wave of people who are now ready to seek help. People are starting to look for help. The media are starting to destigmatise it. But our services aren’t there. And I think Leo Varadkar would the first person to tell you that they’re not good enough yet.

"From meeting Leo Varadkar a few times, I genuinely think there’s a will there to do it. There’s money but it's not being spent because they don’t know how to spend it they don’t know where to spend it."

The star praised charities such as Pieta House, Console Aware as “incredible” and urged the Government to put money into them.

"I always ask myself the question is: ‘If I had a 16-year-old son with a moderate or serious mental health difficulty, would I be comfortable with him going through the public mental health services at the moment?’ No I wouldn’t and that’s the reality."

He also called on the Government to do more to encourage more nurses to take up jobs in the mental health sector. 

He said: "Irish nurses are so sought after all over the world that other countries are coming in with maybe stronger economies at the moment and are sweeping up our really talented nurses.

"We have to figure out a way to keep them."

Listen to the full interview below: