Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I will pursue the specific issues raised by the Deputy and come back to her in writing very shortly. On child and adolescent mental health, the Health Service Executive will establish eight child and adolescent mental health teams during this year.

An important lesson learned from the activities of the HSE during the course of 2007 is the fact that there is a need to monitor employment levels and service needs at an area level. That agreement has been made with the HSE at central level and it is also involved at area level with the relevant trade unions. It is very important the service plan which has been published and approved by the Health Service Executive be monitored from the start of this year. The Department and Government have laid particular emphasis on the need to ensure therapy positions are filled.

Over the past number of years, as I outlined in my initial reply, there has been significant investment by the State in human resources and in upskilling people to ensure we have people qualified in these different disciplines. We must ensure those services are provided for the patients who need them and the Department is involved, sharing a working group with the Health Service Executive, as well as frontline professionals in developing an action plan for the short, medium and long term. This will ensure adequate services for these therapies throughout the entire State.

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