James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

A Vision for Change recommended the establishment of one child and adolescent mental health team per 50,000 people. In total there should be 78 teams but only 47 teams have been established and of the 47 teams only 60% of their staffing complement is in place. That is appalling, given that there were 3,598 children on waiting lists at the end of 2007, with approximately one third waiting more than 12 months for assessment. These are our children; these are our future.

A Vision for Change also recommended that there should be 100 inpatient beds for children and adolescents and in 2006 the Minister of State's predecessor, the former Deputy, Tim O'Malley, promised 80 beds would become available by 2007. To date we have only 12 dedicated child and adolescent beds but we are to get an additional 18 beds this year. Like so many other things we will wait and see whether it will happen.

We now have a problem because of the Children Act where a young person is considered to be a child until the age of 18 years. We have no adolescent service in Swords, the fastest growing town in Ireland with a population of 40,000 and expected to reach 100,000. We have no adolescent service for young people between the ages of 16 years and 18 years. Adult psychiatrists do not feel competent to deal with them and the junior adolescent service does not have the resources to deal with them. In effect, they have no service as GPs have stopped referring them.

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