Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for coming today. I will try to be brief and not go over what was already mentioned. I thank the witnesses for the information they have brought in. First of all, I have a couple of quick observations in respect of child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, particularly in the Limerick area. In A Vision for Change, the figure for staffing in Limerick west is 41.2% whereas for Limerick east it is 74.5%. Will the witnesses give me a brief breakdown of the geography? Where are the lines within the county? Is Limerick east the city? Is there a break between the city and the county? Will they outline why there is such a challenge in west Limerick as opposed to east Limerick? Positions were filled on the east Limerick side in September, if I am not mistaken.

Obviously the development posts are new positions for a new service. From my calculations - and I hope the witnesses will correct me if I am wrong - 70% of those posts have been outstanding from 2014 onwards. If they are not able to provide it today, can the witnesses send me a breakdown of vacant backfilled positions at a later date?

I want to try to get an overall view of posts outstanding, be it development posts and backfills of current vacancies.

I would like the officials to elaborate on funding. It was stated that this service is allocated 6.6% of general health funding. Is the kernel of the argument that they are finding recruitment is constrained by national wage agreements and salaries? I am hearing about the challenges around recruitment but I am not hearing any specific factors. Do the difficulties arise from the location of the jobs, the position being offered or are other jurisdictions targeting consultant psychologists, nurses and so on? I would like to get a breakdown of the recruitment challenges to see where we can try to close the gaps. I agree that we face challenges in recruitment but I would appreciate if the witnesses could articulate specific issues that we could pinpoint.

On budgets, the witness said quite rightly that the budget does not go back to the fund but that it is spent on mental health. When the senior management appeared before the joint committee on a previous occasion, I could not get an answer from them on what happened when money allocated for a new post was not spent because of the failure to fill it. I was told that the money would go to spending on service improvement. I was trying to push for information on whether this money was going into the IT system or where the service improvements were. Would the witnesses give me a general overview of that service improvement, when it is outside recruitment, and also how one arrives at setting the priorities for the area where the service improvement should be made. In 2016, when the money was allocated, it would not have been known how much would not be spent. How does one arrive at the decision?