Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witness for the answer but it is mind-boggling. If I had been running a business for 12 years, I would have the books balanced and I would know exactly what money was going in or out. I cannot find words to describe this. These are totally unacceptable answers. We have a responsibility as a committee and we are trying to get this off the ground. We need to start from the bottom up. I will reiterate this, as more than €1 billion is being spent on mental health services and we cannot get a straight answer for even one CHO or CAMHS element. The witness cannot say that a certain amount is being spent.

I understand about upkeep and so forth, but we are not looking at that. We want to know how much was spent in 2016 in CHO area 4, for example. We want to know what the money was spent on and where it was spent in county areas. Was it spent on CAMHS, who spent the money and who authorised it? We need to get to the crux of the matter because we have a job to do.