Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will speak briefly about primary care psychology. When I came into this post last year, I was very concerned to hear that more than 2,500 young people aged under 18 had been waiting for an appointment for longer than 12 months. Primary care psychology technically does not fall under my remit but under the remit of the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. At the same time, however, there are clear links with regard to mental health. We have looked at this issue. The HSE has done considerable work on how to deal with it and whether we could source capacity in the private sector. We felt that was not possible so a short-term approach has been taken. I managed to secure €4 million for the period between September and December of this year. I asked the area leads in the different CHOs to come up with a process for their areas. This could involve arranging extra clinics, employing locums, sourcing private care or providing for overtime to ensure they take as many children as possible off the list in the short term. That will be done between September and December. It is up to each CHO to be as innovative as possible in that short period.

We also have a plan for the future which involves the recruitment of up to 50 new staff. That will be considered as part of the Estimates. We need a long-term approach to this. A large number of psychologists were hired in 2018. We have to get on top of this waiting list, which is an issue I am very concerned about.