Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ensuring that there is a door was part of our roundtable discussion with the stakeholders. We spend €80 million each year on mental health services and work with various NGOs whether that is Jigsaw, MyMind, Turn2Me or the text line 50808. For some people, a referral to one of these organisations might be sufficient at that stage. The issue is to find the right door but there has to be a referral. People get frustrated when they are on a waiting list for 18 months or two years and the situation gets worse but then they might need CAMHS whereas it would have been better to have an early intervention. We are acutely conscious of the matter. I know that everybody here is only trying to do the very best they can for the young people who need support.