Mr. Ger Reaney:

There is a range of good questions. On the numbers per team, unfortunately I cannot answer the question about overstaffing versus understaffing because none of my CAMHS teams is overstaffed. I gave an answer earlier about adult services. They are indicative figures based on a population and they do not take into account a number of other factors. However, we know that does not arise in respect of the CAMHS services. We have prioritised this area this year for the development funding, which we negotiate with the national team. We will add 7.5 posts to our CAMHS service across Cork and Kerry.

On the question of whether one fills a full team or goes partial, our sense is that we continue to try to address the most important deficits. We have met with our teams as part of our CAMHS enhancement project, led by one of our psychologists, and identified within those teams what the profile is of people presenting, what are the key skills that would make the most difference to them and we prioritise the posts based on that, so that we can achieve the maximum effect.

On agencies, we use them for medical staffing when we cannot get staff in any other way. It is very much used as a last resort.