Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the accountability mechanism, consider what happens when a mere mortal like me, who represents the people of Cork East, submits a parliamentary question on CAMHS, as I did in January when I sought information on the number of persons waiting to be seen by CAMHS by local health office, in tabular form, and the length of time persons were waiting to be seen. It was a very simple question and the response I got was comprehensive, which was to the credit of Mr. Ryan. The response was that the total number of persons waiting for CAMHS nationally was 3,357. When I submitted a further parliamentary question, asking for a breakdown of services provided by CAMHS, specifically the number presenting to CAMHS who were waiting for psychology services, the reply, which was from Mr. O'Regan, the head of operations, gave a universal figure of 9,554 for psychology services alone. If I break it down further in relation to CHO 4, the CHO I am most familiar with, I get a total of 682 people waiting. For psychology services, I get a figure of approximately 3,000 for CHO 4.

What is deeply frustrating for us in representing families and children awaiting appointments or trying to get into the system of CAMHS is that it is very hard to get accurate information in real time in the Houses of the Oireachtas. When we table parliamentary questions, it is very hard to give families real-time information based on their children's needs and their expectations. I have no criticisms whatsoever of the individuals who work in CAMHS, who are trying to do their best and work through all the needs of families daily, but Mr. Reid has to acknowledge that there is a serious issue in respect of CAMHS and his datasets in respect of interrogating figures in that regard. It is Kafkaesque that systems within the HSE organisation are not talking to each other properly. If Mr. Reid cannot even come up with proper figures for me when there are glaring contradictions, how can we expect to have confidence in his approach? In fairness to him, he has taken a national lead on the Covid pandemic, but we want him to devote the same energy to dealing with CAMHS, its management and, ultimately, the delivery of services to families. We remain to be convinced that appropriate resources are being deployed. From Mr. Reid's level of management down, more needs to be done. How does he answer this critique - I do not call it a criticism - of how we as politicians interface with the service?