Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I have a number of issues but I want to pick up on something other Deputies raised, relating to the CDNTs and CAMHS. As a member of the autism committee, I know there is a huge issue whereby, when someone arrives with an autism diagnosis, they are referred out of CAMHS and into the CDNT. CDNTs are a black hole at the moment. I have to concur with Deputy Murphy. My experience of trying to make contact with certain CDNTs to try to talk about individual constituents has not been a good one.

When someone speaks for a long time, sometimes some of the things they say will not stack up, and I made a note of something Mr. Gloster said. He stated children cross over and back between services, but that is not my experience at all. Children do not cross over and back between services. I want the CDNTs to work. I want that multidisciplinary approach to work, for children in particular. I could point Mr. Gloster to a school in the centre of Waterford city that has children from three city CDNTs. When I look at the work we are trying to do to get our RHAs to map more closely with our CHOs, I see the fragmentation that is happening with the CDNTs whereby one school will refer children to three different teams and the teachers are tearing their hair out trying to get services. I do not mean to be overly parochial, but my home parish, Butlerstown, is about 5 miles from the city centre and parents have been told their child is now being referred to Dungarvan because they are regarded as living in part of the county. We have to intervene with Ministers to avoid children being put into that position.

Unfortunately, when Mr. Walsh was answering the question earlier, it sounded terribly like civil servant speak. He referred to a "roadmap plan”. These are relatively new structures, and I am hearing about a lot of people who work with the CDNTs leaving. They are leaving to go to private practice and, contrary to some narratives, they are not going to private practice because they want to cash in. They are leaving because they are incredibly frustrated, and they are frustrated because they are not getting to see children. They are engaging in huge amounts of administration, they are not getting to see children and the whole structure is not working for them. As I said, I really want this to work for children. I echo some of the points made by Deputy Murphy about eating disorders and provision for eating disorders within the south east. It is very difficult to get access to services. We do not really want children to be in acute beds, if we are honest. That is not a good place for them or a good solution.

Where are we with this? The phrase "roadmap plan" just makes it sound more distant than ever that we will have some sort of seamless way of referring children to services that are so critically needed.