Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On the same matter and under the heading "building further capacity in child and adolescent mental health services", from mid-July this year Waterford and Wexford may not have any consultant psychiatric services for children. This comes after the resignation of three psychiatrists who cited a totally unsuitable working environment and unsafe work practices. In an opening statement from the Irish Hospital Consultants Association at yesterday's meeting of the Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care we also learned "In short, the Irish health service is uncompetitive in recruiting and retaining the number of high calibre Consultants it requires." We also learned that in 2016 no applications whatsoever were received in respect of 44 consultant psychiatrist posts advertised. These positions were in the Sligo-Leitrim and Cavan-Monaghan areas, the Central Mental Hospital, the Carlow-Kilkenny area, Donegal, Longford, Westmeath, Laois, Offaly, Waterford, Wexford and Cork. Surely this is having a detrimental effect on the level of safe and effective care to patients. What is the Government going to do to solve this recruitment issue?

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