Professor Joyce O'Connor:

I accept that a lot of what we said and what we are saying now is still relevant. The key to it is the delivery of services. I will talk about the HSE. We identified in our document the key area and where the attention needs to be focused. What has happened is that in each area, there is the possibility now of intervening appropriately in each CHO area to free up this group in the mental health services to deal with people who need their care. There are people on the list who should be more appropriately linked there.

To address the issue of early intervention, there is a need to have an overall multidisciplinary body set up at national level with all the Departments, not just the HSE, but I would like to see the Departments of Education and Skills and Children and Youth Affairs and Tusla to take responsibility for this area so that the interventions therefore will be more effective.

To revert to Deputy Neville's question, the areas that have worked more effectively are those that have effective leadership, work well in a multidisciplinary team, have the full complement of staff and do not have recruitment problems. That is clear.

I think part of the way of addressing it in terms of implementation is to work on this area in terms of early intervention.