Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The reply to a recent parliamentary question revealed there were 61 vacant psychiatric positions, including 13 in community healthcare organisation area 4, covering cork and Kerry. Those positions were in child and adolescent psychiatry, the psychiatry of learning disabilities, the psychiatry of old age as well as general psychiatry.

Ireland has six consultant psychiatrists per 100,000 of population, just half the EU average. In area 4, covering Cork and Kerry, 1,191 young people are waiting more than three months for an assessment. That is a huge indictment on this Government. That is just for an initial assessment, many having been referred in the first place by their general practitioners. Children and adolescents from Kerry are having to try and access inpatient beds in Cork where there are not enough beds to cater for the number of children in crisis, which is resulting in children been admitted into adult wards in University Hospital Kerry. This situation cannot be allowed to persist. If a child or a young person needs care they will face an extended waiting period, which puts them and their mental health at serious risk.

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