Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Dr. Burke is going to send us details of the different CAMHS teams, the number of vacancies and what kinds of vacancies there are in each area. There is other information that we will also need. We have all been in touch with Families for Reform of CAMHS. The information they are feeding back to us regarding the experiences of families is quite shocking. The other piece of information that is very information is the details of waiting times and staffing with regard to primary care psychology services. Again, getting back to that principle of the importance of prevention and early intervention, CAMHS should be for moderate-to-severe cases but if we do not have the earlier interventions then clearly, there will be more people looking for the CAMHS services.

Councillor Liam Quaide, a colleague of mine, was in touch with me recently. He said that with regard to the Cork-Kerry area, he got figures recently which showed that in that area alone there are 5,000 children on waiting lists for primary care psychology services. Looking at the detail of that, 1,500 children in that area alone have been waiting in excess of two years. That is just a shocking figure. Is that standard across the country or are there particular problems in Cork and Kerry? When the HSE is preparing the information about CAMHS, will it provide the corresponding information for primary care psychological services? Groups like Jigsaw were mentioned. The position in this regard needs to be mapped because there are several areas in the country where Jigsaw is not available. What is the level of service provision? I am not asking for an answer now but if the HSE could prepare that full picture for us, it would be helpful.

On primary care centres, what is the status of the capital plan for this year?