Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for coming in and giving their evidence. I am very sorry to hear about Ms Moore Ryan's experience. I will ask a question but, unfortunately, I will then have to leave because I have a committee meeting in committee room 1, which is running at exactly the same time. My apologies for that.

A couple of weeks back, Mental Health Commission representatives were here, including its chair, Dr. John Hillery, and the new Inspector of Mental Health Services. They both agreed, on the record, that CAMHS were in "failure" - that was the word used - and is failing our young people. That seems to align with the experience Ms Moore Ryan set out, and what I hear from the many representations I get through my office. There is a recurring pattern in those representations, one of which is that it is a bit of a lottery as regards where people live and, if they get access to a team, whether the team is led by a consultant with higher specialist training. I emphasise that, generally speaking, there is no criticism of front-line clinicians. The sense there is a failure rests on an acknowledgement that there just are not enough properly qualified people with the higher specialist training that is necessary to put this service in effect, effectively.

This question is for all the representatives. We have been told by the CEO of the HSE that Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People is in failure. We have been told by the Mental Health Commission that CAMHS is in failure. Is there anything that the witnesses could recommend to the committee as a step that could be taken? They are the experts, they are on the front line and they have the lived experience. Is there anything we can do? Is there a pathway, roadmap or example of best or good practice in another jurisdiction they can point to and say that is what we should be doing?