Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have successfully managed to recruit consultant psychiatrists in other parts of the country. There have been challenges in the Kerry area for quite a while.

We have two pieces of good news. For the first time in the history of the State, we have a youth mental health office. Mr. Donan Kelly is the lead and he took up his post on 1 September. I met him last week. In addition, for the first time ever, we have a clinical lead – which is important – namely, Dr. Amanda Burke, who is consultant psychiatrist with more than 30 years of experience. We discovered after the Maskey report, the Mental Health Commission’s report and the HSE’s independent report that there was not a clinical lead with regard to best practice for prescribing for young people. It is important to note that when the Mental Health Commission did its review and when the HSE completed its audit, it was noted and welcomed that the overprescribing that was happening to young people in Kerry was not happening anywhere else in the country. It was not a systemic thing. There was a general fear that might be the case.

Working now with the new youth mental health office in the HSE, we have a dedicated focus and the new clinical lead. I was due to meet Dr. Amir Niazi, who leads on mental health, at 11 a.m. today.

We decided to do the following, which is important: additional funding was secured in the budget for mental health next year - €1.3 billion in total – but all the additional funding for new developments I secured working with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, will be specifically for youth mental health. That is where the main challenges arise. We do not get many challenges in psychiatry of later life or general adult mental health services. There are some challenges but what comes across all our desks is youth mental health, which is where we are now putting the focus.