Ms Siobhán Hargis:

On the Deputy's point regarding the regulation of CAMHS, the Mental Health Bill is currently moving through the House and we expect to be on Committee Stage within the coming weeks. We are currently finalising, with the OPC and key stakeholders, a number of amendments to that Bill. The Act will allow for the regulation of CAMHS by the Mental Health Commission.

It is not the case that we will only wait until the Act is commenced to start looking at regulation of CAMHS and, more broadly, community services. Work is ongoing at present and will continue to progress over the coming months and years to make sure that we move towards the regulation of CAMHS and community services in a speedy fashion because it is something that is supported by the Act and is very important.

The Deputy referenced Dr. Finnerty's finding in the Mental Health Commission report into CAMHS. The Deputy may be aware the child and youth mental health office was established last year within the HSE and has an assistant national director lead, as well as a clinical lead. That office has been working over the past year in the development of an action plan that brings together the recommendations of all the reports over the past number of years, including the Mental Health Commission report and the Maskey report, as well as the recommendations within other audits and reports such as the prescribing audit, and the COG audit as well. That action plan, which, I understand, is due to be published in the coming weeks, will not only provide an opportunity to address all of those recommendations and bring them together but also will address opportunities for service improvement and co-ordinated service improvement planning.

Some of those improvements to CAMHS involve waiting list initiatives. It is recognised that there is a long list for CAMHS and that there is a growing demand for CAMHS services. Last year, €3 million was provided for additional activity to reduce CAMHS waiting lists. That is in addition to the core funding for CAMHS. That funding this year was put in the base to be recurring each year and ring-fenced for CAMHS additionality.

It is not enough to look at additionality. Service improvement is also needed to ensure that children can access services quickly. Examples of service improvement within the CAMHS service include the trialling of the no-wrong door, a single-point-of-access model which allows referrals to go to a single point in order that they can be triaged by CAMHS, by primary care and by disability services. This means that no child is waiting on an inappropriate waiting list or perhaps on multiple waiting lists, but instead that the needs of that child can be met when needed and in a timely fashion.

We also have the development of other examples, such as CAMHS hubs, which allow for short brief interventions when children are in particular crisis. A number of those have been funded over the past couple of years and are running and we are also rolling out a liaison out-of-hours model of care, as well as continued joint working across service groups.

At the heart of a lot of the service improvement is a recognition that co-working and collaborate working is in the best interests of those who need the services, be it mental health services, disability or primary care. That family should access the service they need when they need it as opposed to going down one route, then another route and another route.