Dr. Niall Muldoon:

We do get those complaints and have got them consistently during the time I have been involved in the office, which is now ten years because I was previously the director of investigations before I became Ombudsman. At one stage, we were sending children with eating disorders to England to get clinical support. We now have expertise in Ireland, or at least a little more than we had in the past. However, the independent CAMHS teams do not make their decisions on the basis of a standard operating procedure. The CAMHS team in the area the Cathaoirleach is talking about should be talking to other CAMHS teams and asking both for help and whether other teams can take on board the child. We have had situations and investigations where a child in a mental health situation needed tube-feeding. CAMHS in one area could not provide help. Two other areas had beds but would not take the child because he was from another area.