David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is great, but I ask Mr. Connaghan to bear with me for a second. What is extraordinary about his response is that while every effort is being made by the HSE to get replacements, which is fine, and I have a briefing note in which all that is covered, it should not have come to this. We had three psychiatrists providing a service and they walked out, and what we are hearing is that more will do exactly the same in other parts of the country. This is leaving CAMHS in crisis. Mr. Connaghan said himself that the HSE was aware of these issues going back to 2017 and before that. I am asking Mr. Connaghan, as director general, why were these people not listened to then? Why was corrective action not taken? Now the HSE is left scrambling to look internationally, doing conference calls and all the other work to fill the posts whereas the HSE had people in posts and they felt it was so bad that they walked away. In fact, I heard one of them on national radio in a very distressed state, almost feeling guilty that he walked away from his post, but felt he had no choice because people in power, people with responsibility for delivering services, were not listening to him. How does Mr. Connaghan respond to him and to the patients who are now being left without a service? Whatever is being done now is great, and the HSE has to do its job to fill those posts, but Mr. Connaghan has to account for why those people left in the first place and why, as we sit here, patients in Waterford and elsewhere, young people, are not getting the services they should get.