Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I welcome Mr. John Hayes and Mr. Padraig O'Beirne from CHO 1. I represent the constituency of Sligo, Leitrim, south Donegal and west Cavan, so that is the area I will focus on. I thank Mr. Hayes for his opening statement. I have a number of questions to put to him. Is he confident that that constituency area and indeed the whole CHO 1 region has been operating to the best of its capacity with regard to the levels of mental health care provision over the past four years? The provision of CAMHS in the CHO 1 region is a major concern for me and has been highlighted on numerous occasions. Would it be wrong to say that it has been operating in a state of crisis for the past while? As of this month, 204 children await an initial meeting with a psychologist. These children have eating disorders, are self-harming, have ADHD and many other issues. Sixteen of these children have been waiting for more than a year to meet a psychologist and six have been waiting for longer than 15 months. This is not acceptable. Why are these shocking waiting times being allowed to happen and how can we stand over these delays? Mr. Hayes, as chief officer for the CHO in this area, might explain what progress we are making and how we intend to overcome the statistics that I have in front of me. Has he discussed staff recruitment? I know that is an issue because some of his colleagues have been in before and spoke about funding and staff recruitment. I welcome the recent appointment of a number of staff there in recent weeks. The lack of funding affects the ability of CHO 1 to provide better mental health services to the public. Mr. Hayes has rightly outlined that the area we represent is very vulnerable. There are many issues in many rural areas. Will Mr. Hayes comment on those questions?