Ms Fiona Coyle:

One of the issues we previously raised related to redeployment during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are aware there have been some redeployments of psychiatric nurses and community nurses but we are unable to get precise figures from the HSE in that regard. It is very important to take into consideration how redeployment has impacted services. In addition, many of those community mental health teams across the country are not at full staff capacity. That impacts on the quality of service they can provide and on the waiting lists for people who are accessing those services, especially in rural areas where it may be more difficult to recruit staff. Those challenges exist.