Ms Anne O'Connor:

I am not saying that at all. I am saying it is part of the youth mental health task force that we all participated in collectively. There are a number of recommendations and some are assigned to the Department of Education and Skills and some to the Department of Health. It does not mean we will not be working in partnership, but there is an acknowledgement that the intervention in schools is an issue for the Department. We do not employ psychologists or provide teams to schools but we have psychologists working in local services that link very closely with schools. Many members of our CAMHS teams go into schools on a very regular basis but we do not have a dedicated team.

We work very closely in the HSE across the primary care, health and well-being and mental health divisions. The role of the mental health division is very much around very specialist mental health services. The health and well-being division has far more engagement in schools intervention. We are looking at that as the full pathway for mental health for young people.