Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for the work they are doing in youth mental health. It is valuable and important. I will not use the language I was going to use but I am getting tired listening to myself talking about problems all the time. That is what I seem to be doing in the Dáil. I can call out waiting lists for services for young people left, right and centre but I would rather start focusing on solutions. That is something we need to do. We need to start focusing on improvements in young people’s mental healthcare.

I find Jigsaw’s recommendation No. 5 interesting as it is an area I have always seen as a problem. We must strive for better integration of services. Sometimes services are not having a conversation with each other. There is no integration or referrable pathways. How can we improve integration of existing services such as Jigsaw, CAMHS, primary care, general practice, community disability network teams and youth services?