Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am looking for a view from the Department of Health as to how it monitors spending. We are constantly told there is no problem with money and that money is not the issue.

A number of articles in the Business Post in recent weeks chimed with my experience with some of the services and, in essence, the idea that we do not have granular information available to us and we cannot rely on audited figures. I want to see the evidence. Looking at the evidence is what this committee is about. The evidence is not there for us to interrogate because it is a non-audited figure. It is completely unacceptable.

I have a very short period of time. I will ask about problems with adult services. Most of the focus today will be on child and adolescent mental health services. I will ask about all the community healthcare organisation, CHO, areas. We talk about a figure for recruitment of staff and where there are gaps. We talk about that in a very global way. I do not expect the HSE representatives to give this to us now, but will they provide the committee with a document about all nine of the CHO areas, specifically in respect of child and adolescent mental health services? What vacancies are in each of those areas? How long have those vacancies been there? What efforts have been made to fill those vacancies? I ask them to come back to us with that because I expect we will have to have further sessions with the HSE and this may well be one issue. I just want to satisfy myself on that.

Equally, will they give us the structure of, and where there are gaps in, adult services? Are there currently children in adult mental health approved facilities at this stage? Is the HSE satisfied that 88 places are sufficient? If not, what is the number that is required?