Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I visited Arden House and I met the team. There is a very good and comprehensive team working in Arden House. When someone looks to be supported by a CAMHS team, it is not the politicians or the parents who will determine whether they meet the criteria or not but it is the consultant psychiatrist in the multidisciplinary team.

There has been a lot of comment today about children's rights. I did not receive a copy of the Children's Rights Alliance scorecard until this morning so I did not have a chance to respond prior to this. In 2023,12 children were admitted to adult wards. In 2019, for example, there were 54, so we have been making significant progress. There are occasions when a consultant psychiatrist will make a clinical decision that an appropriate placement for a young person for their own safety may be in a psychiatric adult ward. Anybody who was placed in a psychiatric adult ward last year was aged 17-plus. Sometimes if they are not placed in that ward there can be an adverse response. If there is a situation with regard to life or death, I will take life any day of the week.

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