Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 5 July 2018

Public Accounts Committee

2017 Financial Statements of the HSE
2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health

9:00 am

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I ask Mr. Connaghan to bear with me for one second. I do not want to be rude in any way. My questions were very specific. Notwithstanding whatever money was allocated, we now do not have the staff. Money might have been allocated, but three psychiatrists have left. They have walked out on his organisation. They have left. They are gone. They have said they have had enough. They have been raising issues for years. They have not been listened to, so they are gone. Now children in Waterford and Wexford and elsewhere are being left without cover. I will read out to Mr. Connaghan from one of the newspapers one quote from one of the children involved. She said:

Just giving people medication and telling someone 'we'll see you in two weeks' isn't enough ... And what was given to me first wasn't even right for me as things turned out. They definitely need to do [an awful] lot more.

This issue was echoed by the three consultants who resigned. Why did they resign? Why did it take their resignations for the HSE to listen to their concerns? Does Mr. Connaghan accept that it is unacceptable that this has left children in Waterford and the south east with mental health issues with no cover or very little cover?

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