Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I simply point out to the Minister that in the category of the HIQA report where significant risk is identified, it is precisely in the area of children who are particularly vulnerable and who have been subjected to organisational and-or institutional abuse. That is what the report says. That is pretty worrying. If those figures are replicated in the other 16 administrative areas of the country, that indicates an adequate service is not being provided to thousands of children at significant risk.

I wonder how all this relates to the crisis in child mental health services for which the Children's Alliance gave the Government an E grade - a fail grade - in its recent report, due to lack of beds, resources and staff, which seem to be evident in both of those areas. When I tabled questions on child mental health services to the Department they were transferred to the Department of Health. I have tried to raise the matter as a Topical Issue debate. I submitted the matter approximately 25 times in recent months. I believe the relevant Departments do not want to talk about the issue. There may well be a connection between the allocation of a social worker and child mental health services. If children initially identified as needing support do not have a social worker allocated, how many of them end up with mental health problems and then face the inadequate crisis ridden situation in the child mental health services? One cannot get answers about the area.

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