Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to Mr. Reid if I repeat questions but I was attending a meeting of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality, which had the Tánaiste in attendance.

Before I left this meeting, Mr. Reid acknowledged that mental health and disability services are two of the major pressure points regarding service delivery for the HSE. I think all of us, as elected members, agree they are two points of pressure we see at our clinics. Sometimes, navigating the system is half of the issue among people who come to me.

The delay in accessing mental health and disability services and the resultant anxieties often compound the challenge a person might be facing. Sometimes there are no clear communications to the effect that the person is being handled in a coherent way. The correspondence is often a letter with a date or a letter stating that there will not be a date. There is no feeling that there is a comprehensive, holistic approach to care. That is something we have to think about because, as well as not providing the service, we are compounding the challenge because of poor communication. I will come back to that in the second.

With regard to CAMHS, we have had many questions about CHO 4. From what I understand, the waiting list for CAMHS right across the country is significant. I have heard anecdotal evidence to the effect that it is significantly higher than last year. Do the witnesses have any indication as to what the waiting lists will be given the referrals from last year?