Ms Maria Bridgeman:

I thank Senator Maria Byrne for raising this. Our long-term plan and vision is that we are looking forward to developing the St. Joseph's Hospital health campus on Mulgrave Street. One of the bits we have proposed as part of that is a CAMHS residential unit. However, that is very much in the longer term. Currently, we have secured moneys for a new project for a CAMHS hub in Limerick city and we plan to base that in the St. Joseph's Hospital complex at the moment. In addition to that, it will provide telehealth medicine and will be a support for children as they step up and step down from the CAMHS unit in Galway, for example. We have secured 4.5 whole-time equivalents, WTEs, for that and the 0.5 equivalent is a consultant. This is just a newly developed project so that is very good.

In respect of mental health for children with intellectual disability, a consultant is being recruited and processed at the moment. This will be based in Limerick and will also be a regional service.

We also have a youth advocate programme in place for children and this is a six-month intensive outreach programme for children attending CAMHS. It gives them some personal assistance support hours to help them to engage with society and with their families. It has commenced as a pilot in east Limerick this September and we are hoping, based on evaluation of this pilot, to expand it further.