Dr. Shari McDaid:

Our understanding is that the HSE has had a couple of attempts at developing an IT system, with a proof of concept phase and a business case phase. It was asked to develop an interim solution and then it was told such a development would be part of the electronic health record. I would be concerned about that being a medium-term to long-term development. We feel there needs to be a greater sense of urgency in putting in place some basic information about what is happening in the mental health services. For example, we met with Mr. Stephen Mulvaney, the first national director for mental health, and simply asked him to ensure we knew what the waiting lists for psychological therapies were across the mental health services. It is a very significant indicator of the scope of provision and people who use mental health services have told us over and over again they want access to it as part of a holistic support structure, but we do not have it yet. We need to come up with a set of discrete indicators as a priority.