Dr. Niall Muldoon:

The pathfinder project originated in 2014 as a Civil Service renewal project where the Civil Service agreed to show its ability and agility to adapt and change. It took three different projects, one of which was on mental health, and it agreed that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Education and the Department of Health would create a single unit, staffed by various principal officers and assistant principals from around the different Departments, to allow for a smoother transition of children and youth mental health systems. Again, this was acknowledging the fact that a teacher will refer a child for a mental health issue to the local GP, the GP will refer it on to CAMHS, and all three Departments are engaged in that system. It is to make it easier and smoother and to make everything work better.

The funding was agreed for five years in a row and all three Secretaries General agreed it would happen, but it has never happened. Every time I have chased it in the last five years, the suggestion is that it is being done under section 12 of the Civil Service Act of 1998, or the public service Act, although I am not quite sure of the logistics. There is legislation that needs a statutory instrument but the Department of Health is the legal lead on that, and it has not happened yet. I have written to numerous different Ministers on this and I keep being pushed around in circles. Those in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform are the final people because they fund it, but they have not got anything from the Department of Health, and the Department of Health says it has been working on it for the last five years and it is imminent. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, the last time she spoke in the Dáil on a parliamentary question that I am aware of, which was probably in March, said it should be happening soon, but it has been said to me for the last five years that is imminent. I would hate anything to be delivered to my staff that was supposed to be imminent but did not come for five years. It really has not happened.

Again, the whole idea of a pathfinder is that it is difficult to make it happen because you are finding your own path, but five years should be more than enough time to make it happen. It is exactly what we need now, when we are talking about moving things into smoother and more holistic cross-departmental work. If that unit was in place now, what we are suggesting for schools would be much easier to make happen. If there could be any support on that, it would be great to see it happen.