Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Would it make sense that these services should be put to one side for the moment in favour of developing the more traditional services? Telemedicine is quite new. I have to put my cards on the table and state that I do not like it, although that is my personal opinion. I would prefer to see a doctor or mental health professional. In the absence of services being developed, I would caution against going down the road of telemedicine. Every person who has spoken has said it is okay and it might be positive as a complement to existing services. The difficulty I have is that if we go down that road before we build up the other services, it will become increasingly less likely that we will develop the other services and we will simply have the idea that what was intended to be the complement to the services becomes the only service. I caution against that. I ask that we park that for the moment and focus solely on the development of the services that are so lacking.

I live in north County Dublin. The waiting times there for children to access a person face to face are running up to 30 months. I would be nervous that families who are in crisis, and getting further into crisis as the wait goes on, would simply be offered an app or some version of telemedicine without the additional support and then, because all the staff are under pressure, the box is ticked to indicate that the supports are in place. There is a space for the telemedicine service or the e-mental health support to complement existing services but, in the absence of existing services, I do not believe the telemedicine model will work or be effective. It is not intended to be the service; it is intended to be the complement to the service.

Dr. McDaid makes a very good point that mental health service users should be consulted and their opinions should be sought, and the service they want and need should be delivered for them. However, my fear is that the service will be developed because it is cost-efficient and is much cheaper than another version of it. That is where the focus will go and it will no longer be on making up the deficit.