Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand the HSE is in the final stages of recruiting staff required to deliver a seven days a week mental health service. It has recruited 114 assistant psychologists and 22 psychologists to develop a primary care element. One difficulty in our system is that primary care has been underdeveloped and everything is going to a consultant-led service in CAMHS, so that is a very important part of developing an integrated service. The additional funds have been provided but there are undoubtedly gaps and there are difficulties in recruiting in this area, which has been acknowledged.

In my area of responsibility, we are expanding very significantly the National Education Psychological Service, NEPS, because we recognise that increasingly mental health challenges appear in our schools and we must build the capacity at that stage, before access to any form of referral system to build greater capability and resilience in the system.

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